BREAKING NEWS
...A Breaking News special report!!!
Monday, June 2, 2008
An item caught Breaking News’ attention last Tuesday, spurring an investigation, when the Lawrence Journal-World printed the following in its daily law enforcement report:
“Lawrence police arrested a 45-year-old Lawrence man near 14th and Vermont streets Monday evening after witnesses said he walked into their house, stole some beer and walked out, said Sgt. Damon Thomas, a police spokesman.”
Breaking News tracked down the victims of this crime, a group of young women who share a house on the 1400 block of Kentucky. They didn’t want their names used in this story but were willing to talk. The following is what happened, according to their accounts:
On the afternoon of May 26, Memorial Day, the roommates returned from a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. At about 5 p.m., they received a call from a neighbor.
“Who’s on your porch?” the neighbor asked.
The roommates, who had been in their upstairs bedrooms, came downstairs to look out the front window. They saw on their front porch a tall, thin man with long, scraggly hair, whom they would describe as “nasty,” chugging a beer and smoking a cigarette.
Perhaps hearing their screams and giggles, the man took off across the street, stumbling and apparently drunk. One of the roommates noticed from the window that he was carrying a case of Bud Light. The case of Bud Light that they had set inside the house near the front door upon returning from the Lake of the Ozarks was missing.
Photo by Frank Tankard
“I think that’s our beer!” she said.
Having just stepped out of the shower before coming downstairs, she was wearing only her bra and underwear. Her roommates stopped her before she could bolt out the door and handed her a dress, which she threw on.
“Get back with our beer!” she yelled, running across the street and catching up with the man.
“I just needed one,” he pleaded.
“I’ll trade you three if you give our case back,” she said, and he agreed to the arrangement.
After she returned with the partially emptied case of beer, one of the roommates thought they ought to call the police. Not long afterward, police found the man urinating near 14th and Vermont and arrested him. Officers knocked on the door of the house shared by the young women and returned the three cans of Bud Light.
One question remains: Why did the man come into the house in the first place? Was he equipped with beer radar?
“That’s the weird part,” one of the roommates said.
Theories abound. Perhaps he saw them bring the beer inside. One roommate calls that scenario unlikely, because about 45 minutes passed between the time they brought the beer inside and the time they estimate he walked in through the front door and carried the beer out to the porch.
Another theory is that he was attracted by the sign that was left in their front yard from a graduation party, reading, “The party is here.”
—All facts in this story are real. Got a breaking news tip? Email Frank Tankard at frank@lawrence.com. Wherever facts need finding, Breaking News is there.
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