There are a lot of sick people in this world. There are a lot of perverts and pedophiles. Most of the time, though we definitely don't agree with things that people do, we eventually come to understand what went wrong in the perpetrator's life to drive them to commit such disgusting and heinous acts. Every person on the planet goes through rough times. Many come from hectic and broken homes. Not all of these people turns out to be pedophiles or child molesters. It is not the events that occur in our lives that should define the people we are, rather it is how we react and overcome the tragedies, and revel and share in the blessings of our lives that should and do define us. In December of 2004, my path would cross that of a man (and I use this term loosely) who had decided that he would allow his disturbing past to infect the most innocent people he came across.
I got to the store in the not-so-nice neighborhood at store opening on a Monday. I did my usual start of shift routine which involved checking my email. I had been off all weekend so my inbox was full of job-well-done emails sent to the teams at other stores in the region, internal tips from department managers, various association newsletters, as well as a few BOLO's (be on the lookout.) The BOLO's were always the most interesting. We had a pretty sophisticated email system. Everyone in LP had an email address and we could send photos taken directly from our digital surveillance systems. They were usually alerts for known or habitual boosters (professional shoplifters) that had been spotted or caught at different stores. Sometimes we'd even get alerts from other retailers' LP departments with whom we cooperated and shared information. Today, however, one of these BOLO's was not your typical alert. This one didn't involve theft at all... at least not theft of property. This particular subject was more into stealing innocence. An adult male had recently been reported to store managers as having exposed himself to a 6 year old girl in one of our nearby stores. Surveillance video was reviewed and sure enough, the entire incident was recorded. This evil sonofabitch waited until this little girl was in an aisle all by herself. Her mother was looking at picture frames as the girl wandered into the next aisle to look at children's bedding. When she was all alone, the subject walked into the aisle, made sure he had the girl's attention, and exposed himself. She just stood there after he walked away. She didn't do or say anything immediately. After about a minute, she slowly walked back over to her mother and apparently told her what happened as best she could. You could tell just by watching the video that the mother was horrified. She absolutely freaked out. You can see her practically running around the store looking for the nearest associate. The police were called and reports were taken but the subject wasn't located.
Over the next few days, this sick asshole struck twice more at different stores. By Thursday, he was in the paper as being the fugitive task force's most wanted. On Friday, they almost got their man. My partner and I started that morning at the same time. I refer to him as my partner because at this store, whenever we worked together, it was a partnership. We never stopped alone. We knew how each other operated. We were in the office turning on the various surveillance monitors. As soon as our call-up monitor was powered on and came into focus, I saw him come in through the main entrance. He was wearing the same stupid sunglasses he had worn in every other case. I told my partner "T" that our guy had just entered the store. T immediately called the police, but unfortunately the self-important dispatcher hadn't read the local paper. The conversation between T and the dispatcher went something like this:
-"----- Police, is there an emergency?"
-"Yes ma'am, this is T with ----- store security, we've got a wanted fugitive in the store and need police immediately."
-"Sir, how do you know he's a wanted fugitive?"
-"He's the guy that's been exposing himself in our stores. He's wearing the same sunglasses. I know it's him and we need the police right now."
-"Sir, you can't be positive it's the same guy. Has he exposed himself to anyone in the store today?"
-"...Well, no, but... please just send a car."
-"Sir, we're tied up at the moment. I can't send anyone now but we'll get an officer there when one is available. In the meantime, call us if he does anything."
T hung up the phone and just had this completely baffled look on his face. He could not comprehend the fact that a local dispatcher had basically just refused to send an officer to a situation that required immediate attention. He had one more trick up his sleeve but after a very brief discussion, the two of us agreed that even though it was completely against company policy, we would take the guy down ourselves to keep him from making another little girl a victim; even if we got fired. T had a good friend that worked as a cop for a neighboring agency. The store was right on the border to the extent that if you left the parking lot out of the west drive, you immediately entered the other city. T called his cop buddy and, fortunately, he wasn't busy. His friend agreed to break departmental policy and leave his jurisdiction to check things out. The officer arrived and parked in the lot out of view from the main entrance. We continued to follow the bastard on camera as he singled out his prey. T and I went to the sales floor in preparation to deter or take this guy down. A little girl wandered into an aisle all by herself and T and I could see the asshole making his move. For the safety of everyone involved, I entered the aisle with the girl and began looking at random merchandise. The subject quickly proceeded to the front of the store. He left and got into his vehicle. Because the cop was out of his jurisdiction, he could not do anything unless the subject committed an offense in his city. I followed the subject out to the parking lot and watched him leave toward the west drive. The officer drove by and told me to get in the car. I was confused, but not about to argue with a cop, so I got in. Fortunately the subject exited out the proper driveway and immediately entered into the cop's jurisdiction. Even more fortunately, he failed to use his turn signal when making a left hand turn. The officer ran the plate and initiated a traffic stop. The subject pulled over without hesitation. The officer told me to stay in the car no matter what and showed me where the "man-down button" was on the in-car radio in case something bad happened. I began reading the screen on the cruiser's laptop as the officer conducted a field interview with the subject. Next thing I knew, the officer was sprinting back to the cruiser and the tires were squealing before the door was even closed.
-"What the hell happened?"
-"That motherfucker took off! 42 dispatch, I'm in pursuit..."
Apparently right after the officer asked the subject for his identification, the subject threw the car into drive and took off. Here I was, sitting in the passenger seat of a police car involved in a high speed pursuit. Next thing I knew, there were no less than 12 cruisers from various agencies (including the one we had called initially- not so busy now huh?) pursuing the suspect vehicle. The traffic increased as did the danger. After what seemed like forever, but was probably only 5 minutes, a supervisor called off the pursuit for safety reasons. The subject got away, but as long as the vehicle he was driving was registered to him, we at least had a name.
A week later we were visited in the store by a deputy US Marshal. He handed us each a plaque and notified us that they had tracked down and arrested the subject at a family barbecue. The subject had been released from prison not even two months prior after serving a 10 year sentence for attempted rape and child molestation. He was a convicted sex offender on parole who had failed to report to his PO. The dispatcher that T initially contacted was immediately terminated after receiving letters from both the Marshal's office as well as from the chief of the agency that T's friend worked for. A recording of the call aired on the nightly news. More plaques and letters of congratulations would follow from citizens, colleagues, and corporate executives.
What a day.
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