Alright, I’ve got a confession to make. The title is sort of misleading. If you clicked on this article with the expectation of being entertained by drama with thrills and twists, I’m sorry to disappoint you. If you thought you were going to read a Disney style story, accept my apology. To be most transparent, the only thing that Disney has to do with this is that the figurines that were stolen were Disney characters. What I do believe is that if you bear with me, you will not be sorry. This event is 100% true and it does definitely fall under the category: You just can’t make this stuff up!
This all started when I was stationary in my vehicle parked beside another cruiser speaking with an officer in a shopping center parking lot. Just after 9:00 pm, another vehicle stopped about 25 feet from where we were at, and an older couple stepped outside of their vehicle. The male got my attention and gestured that he wished to speak with me. I exited the vehicle and discovered that they were the owners of a major greeting card company store. I released the other officer and I followed the couple back to their store. We entered the store and I followed them back to their office.
We sat down in front of their computer where they began to show me on camera footage they have earmarked events that have occurred over the last month and a half. It was about three weeks ago that they noticed that the Disney character figurines they displayed on a rack had one by one come up missing. They checked on the camera day by day to see when these figurines went missing. Each day that they noticed they had been taken, the same customer had been in the store and was admiring the display. Up until tonight, they did not have footage that he actually took it, but the figurine stolen on each particular day was seen by the camera to be on the rack, and was not there when the customer left. It seems that the customer knew where the cameras were and was able to block the view when the snatching of the figurine was committed. He knew how to block the view with his body. So far, he has gotten away with the dwarf Dopey, the dwarf Doc and Donald Duck. The clerks that worked for them were notified to keep a look out for the customer, who was a young red-headed chubby adult.
Tonight, they got several breaks. The observant clerk recognized the customer when he walked into the store and headed for the Disney figurine rack. Acting as if she was speaking to a customer, she called the owners that the suspect was in the store. Beforehand, the owners angled as many cameras toward the rack as they could. Still, the customer was able to block the view of all of the cameras. However, there was one camera that gave a near perfect view of the rack. Looking at the footage, I observed him pick up one particular figurine, look at it and put it down. He would look at others, but would keep coming back to the same figurine.
At the same time, he was looking around to see where the clerk was. The clerk at the time had picked up a feather duster and was acting like she was cleaning and wasn’t paying attention to him. Once again, when the clerk had to turn around to get around a display, the customer quickly blocked the view of the camera and the clerk, and when he moved away, that particular figurine was gone. Even though the footage was circumstantial evidence, I told the owners I believed if I could identify the thief, I could still make a case. That is when the male owner said, “You won’t have to settle for that. We have more evidence that he stole the figurine.”
They explained that the clerk noticed something else when the figurine snatcher turned around as she returned to the register. It appeared that the particular figurine he decided to steal that night was his undoing. For when he turned around and was facing the clerk, she looked down at his cargo shorts and she noticed quite distinctly that the nose on Pinocchio was protruding out from inside his pocket. As I was trying to maintain my composure (and miserably failing), I let them know that the case got better, but we still needed to find out who this guy was. I told him that I could put his picture out on our computer for other officers to look out for him. The male owner said, “Officer, you won’t have to do that.”
It seems that when the snatcher noticed the clerk looking suspiciously at him, to attempt to throw her off, he asked when they were going to get Snow White in, since he had two dwarves at home (hmm, I wonder if that was Doc and Dopey). When she said she didn’t know, he wrote down his first name and number and gave it to her, and asked her to call him when she got in. I told them that this was good, if the number is genuine, I could call him and see if he could come in. The male owner said, “Officer, you won’t have to do that.”
So, not only did he give the clerk his first name and number, he told her that he worked in the department store in the same shopping center, and it will be no problem for him to come on his break and purchase it. I told the owners that this was amazing. I could actually call his boss, and get all of his information so that I knew where he lived as well as his last name. The male owner said, “Officer, you won’t have to do that.”
When he started to walk out the door, he appeared to be somewhat awkward and nervous, so he casually walked over to this stand that had entry cards that you could fill out to win a cruise. He filled it out completely, with last name and address, and placed it in the box. The owner, who had a key to the box, retrieved it and gave it to me. It turned out that he filled it out accurately with his real name and address. He then left. The clerk watched him walk from there and go into the department store he said he worked at. I never have investigated a crime like this that the suspect willingly gave so much information about themselves at the scene.
So, the next day, I went to the department store and got in touch with his boss. I told her that I was in the middle of a criminal investigation and that I needed to speak with the gentleman. She took me back to the layaway counter where he was helping a customer. When he was finished, he asked how he could help me. I told him that I needed to speak with him concerning a theft, but would rather be discreet and have him come to the precinct station after he got off work. He asked if it was okay if he went home first. We agreed on a time for him to arrive.
When he came into the lobby, I noticed that he had his mother with him. This was a 27 year old man who had to have his mommy (how he referred to her as) to come and help him. He asked if his mommy can come back with him, and I told him that he needed to stand on his own two feet on this and that his mother would be comfortable in the lobby while we spoke. So I took him back to the work room where we sat in front of a computer.
The first thing I did at that time was read him his Miranda warnings (check out my other blog entitled Miranda Warnings (Rights)- Exposing the Myths as to why I did even though he was not strictly under arrest) and I made sure he understood them. I told him that we would look at some camera footage and we would talk about it. The footage was of the night I was summoned by the owners. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: Who is this handsome young man standing in front of the Disney figurine rack?
Him: Me.
Me: I see you keep picking up Pinocchio. I like Pinocchio too. It has a good moral story about how Pinocchio’s nose kept growing every time he lied. It just shows that if you try to be deceitful, you will eventually be found out. (At that time, you see him move out of the way, and the figurine is gone. I then give a feigned gasp) Where did Pinocchio go??!!
Him: (Looking down) It went in my pocket.
Me: Thank you for being honest, sir. In this same vein of honesty, the clerk said that you told her that you had two dwarves at home. Are they stolen too?
Him: Yes.
Me: Donald Duck too?
Him: Yes.
Me: I tell you what. Can I trust you to have your mom take you home and grab them and bring them back to me?
Him: Yes sir.
So he went and got them and brought them to me. I took a photo of them with him standing beside them. I asked him why he stole them, and he told me that he couldn’t afford them but he felt like he just had to have them. I advised him to get some help with that. I allowed his mother to take him to the magistrate’s office where I took out four misdemeanor charges for shoplifting. In court, since he did not have a criminal history before, the judge combined the four into one charge, made him do a few weekends in jail with a year probation, along with shoplifting counseling. What’s worse, since I had to confiscate his entry card, he was no longer in the running for the cruise.
Even though I’m not Prince Charming, I did rescue those Disney figurine characters from their kidnapper, so I guess I can end this by saying, “And they all lived happily ever after!”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DON’T LET YOUR ATTACKER GET TO THIS POINT–PROTECT YOURSELF NOW AND
CLICK BELOW!!
