Neighbourhood Thief

Neighborhood Thief

BY: Joseph A. Monachino

Dave is in his 3-piece suit that he wears to go to work every day. It just seems like a normal day after he locks the front door of his house and walks to his Corvette that is parked in the driveway.

Something out of the ordinary happens, though. As he puts his hand on the handle of the driver’s door of the car, which he opened with his remote device, he sees a gun pointed to his head.

He hears a voice that says: “Look straight ahead, and not at me, while you hand over your cell phone.”

Dave does not question the person saying this and reaches into his pocket and hands the phone over to him. Dave already unlocked the phone to be used ad needed.The thief takes the phone and swiftly runs down the driveway and into his car and drives away.

Dave is shaken up. Since he is self-employed, he does not have to worry about getting to work late. He, therefore, walks up the driveway and goes back into the house. He quickly goes to his den and turns on the computer.

There is a security camera over the garage door that points down onto his car. He zooms in on the car when the theft took place. Analyzing the picture carefully, he sees a close-up of the thief. He sees dark hair and glasses on his face. Upon further analysis, he sees a tattoo of the American flag, with the initials “B.B.”, on the thief’s neck. These are the 2 distinct features that will help Dave identify him where he will hopefully go to jail.

----

Dave is now on a zoom call to the local police station.

He says: “My name is Dave Stooley. I’d like to report that my cell phone got stolen.”

The clerk at the police station tells Dave that in the neighborhood, there have been a string of thefts where victims got their cell phones stolen.

The clerk asks: “Do you have a picture or an image of the thief?”

Dave replies by saying: “Yes, I have it here on my computer.”

The clerk asks: “Can you be kind enough to send the picture to me on an attachment of an e-mail?”

Dave replies by saying: “I’ll gladly do that.”

The clerk concludes by saying: “We are in the process of analyzing photos of all victims photos that have been sent to us.Please visit our police website to get updates as to when we identify the thief.”

Dave concludes the conversation by saying: “I will do as you say. Thank you for your assistance.”

The conversation ends. Dave turns off his computer, goes out the front door, into his car, and to his place of employment.

---

Dave has been at work for 3 hours. It is now 12 Noon, and he starts his 1-hour lunch break by checking the news feed on his Facebook site. He scrolls down and finds the story regarding stolen cell phones in his neighborhood. Dave can’t believe it. The police have identified the thief by first and last name. Dave knows who the thief is! His name is Bill Blarey. Dave knows the exact house where he lives.

He wonders why the police haven’t arrested him yet. The news story continues by saying the police haven’t arrested him yet because no victims of the cell phone thefts can ascertain that he stole their cell phones from them.

Dave has a plan. He will go to the thief’s house to identify him so that he can testify in court that he is the thief. Dave realizes he is risking his life by doing this, though.

---

Dave drives to Bill Blarey’s house. He is nervous but it’s a chance he’ll have to take.Dave gets out of his car, walks up Bill’s driveway, and knocks on his door.

Bill opens the door and says, curtly: “Do I know you?”.

When Bill says this, he is not wearing glasses.

Dave replies by saying: “Yes, I do. You stole my cell phone from me the other day. I have proof. Here’s a picture of you in the act.”

Bill replies: “That can’t be me. The guy in the picture is wearing glasses.”

Dave agrees with Bill. But, Dave glances to Bill’s neck. He sees something that identifies that he is the thief. He sees the tattoo of the American flag with the initials “B.B.”.

He coyly agrees, saying: “I’ve got to agree with you. Sorry to disturb you.”

Dave gets back into his car and drives home.He knows he can get Bill arrested.That is because the tattoo, of the American flag with the initials “B.B.”, can be clearly seen in the picture.Also, Dave saw the tattoo and the initials in the exact same place on Bill’s neck as is positioned in the picture of Bill when he stole the cell phone from Dave.

At this point, Dave goes to his computer.What he does is he uploads the same picture onto his computer screen. Then, he visits a website with images of different types of glasses on it.When he finds glasses that are similar to Bill’s, he superimposes them onto the police image of Bill Blarey.

Voila! Dave can ascertain, with both pictures, that Bill Blarey is the cellphone thief. The 2 pictures show Bill wearing glasses.But, more importantly, they both show a tattoo with the American flag, and the initials “B.B.” on his neck in the exact same position.

Excitedly, Dave attaches both pictures to an e-mail message he sends to the police clerk he spoke to earlier in the week.

The police clerk phones Dave, after 24 hours, and says: “Is this Mr. Dave Stooley?”

“Yes, it is”, replies Dave. “How can I help you?”

“I am Tony Hill from the Metropolitan Police Department. Thank you for sending the 2 pictures of Bill Blarey. With the pictures you provided, and the information about the tattoo you gave us, we can now arrest Bill Blarey for all the cell phone thefts that have occurred in the neighborhood. We thank you for your assistance and cooperation in helping us solve this case.”

Dave responds by saying: “ I am more than happy to have been a catalyst in getting this evil doer arrested.

---

Bill Blarey is arrested and brought to jail.The trial, for the thefts he committed takes place 12 months later. The judge examines both photos and concludes that Bill Blarey is guilty as charged.He is sentenced to 10 years in prison without parole.

A few days later, Dave Stooley, and all the victims who were stolen of their cell phones, get them back. The cell phones were not sold by Bill because he wanted to collect a lot of 50 before he sold them. They are all relieved that their nightmarish experience, of having their cell phones stolen, is over.