The Case of the Gold Jewelry

Seldom does a law man have the opportunity to catch a thief in the act of stealing something. 99% of the thefts I have investigating have been after the act of thievery took place.

One afternoon I was patroling in Columbus and accidentally caught two men leaving a house through an open window. Upon becoming aware of me one man started running one way while the other took off running the opposite direct. I chased the first thief who was carrying an electric watermelon, (boombox) on his shoulder. When I caught him I tackled him to the ground, and then handcuffed him around a convenient telephone pole for safe keeping until I could return later.

I ran back to my car and traveling in the direction I last saw the second man I found him running south towards the Mexican Border, and there was a large cotton field between he and I. I got out of my car and using my binoculars was able to get a good look at the man and what he was wearing. While I was looking at him through my binoclars, he started flipping me the bird and then he had the audacity to drop his trousers and "moon me" with his bare ass. I at this time decided that I would catch this man no matter what it took, so I went back to my office and got on my quad ATV and started back towards where I had last seen the man.

By the time I returned to the last location where I had seen him, he was about a mile further south towards the Mexican border traveling cross country through the brush that was slowing him down. I decided to travel as fast as I could on the ATV to the Mexican Border on the main paved road from Columbus to the Mexican border. When I reached the border I followed the border fence east bound until I was directly south of the fleeing felon and then turned north towards him. In otherwards he was running towards me thinking that I was behind him chasing him.

I soon had the man in my sights and he was so intent on looking over his shoulder behind him, that he never saw me coming until I was right on top of him. When he became aware of me in front of him, he tried to turn west in an attempt to out run me, but I simply ran over him with the ATV which caused him to cease all attempts to elude me. The contact with my ATV caused him to lose consciousness, that enabled me to handcuff him without a struggle. When he regained consciousness I marched him cross country to the United States Port of Entry located about a mile southwest of our location. When I arrived at the Port of Entry I searched the man's pocket and found there a pair of large dangly women's earrings that I seized as evidence of a crime. The man's skin was covered with "jailhouse" tattoos, the kind that are found on Mexican gang members in prison. Based upon his tattoos United States Immigration was able to determine that the man I caught in the burglary had several outstanding felony warrants against him, and that he had been in prison in Spain, Venezuela, and Mexico previously.

My investigation determined that the gold earrings belonged to a local woman who ran a labor business. She was famous because of the large earrings she wore, and her estranged husband had hired the man I pursued and caught to steal the earrings. The husband intended to allow the thief to sell the earrings in Mexico as payment for their theft. He stated to me that he was paying his wife back for the nasty divorce that she had won against him. I booked the husband as an accessory to the theft, but he jumped bond and fled to Mexico. I do not know if he was ever prosecuted for the crime. The man I chased and caught was incarcerated in the United States, and many years later was deported from the United States by U.S. Immigration.

I cited the first man I caught with the boom box, and he spent time in jail for the theft.