Nabbed

You really have to appreciate the string of events that led to this alleged jewel thief being nabbed in a case that was unlikely to ever be solved. First, a citizen followed the debonair crook as he dashed from the jewelry store with the $27K Rolex he had been examining. Second, the good citizen sees a road atlas fall from the open door as the thief made his getaway. Next, Dave Sobatka in the LPD Forensic Unit was able to both develop and identify a latent fingerprint from one of the dog-eared pages of the atlas.

Then Bill Gumm, the police chief in Columbus, NE, reading the daily newspaper, notes the similarity between this case and one in Salina, KS that he had read about in the Nebraska Information and Analysis Center's most recent bulletin. He sends me an email with the heads-up (he reads those bulletins more thoroughly than me!). Finally, Investigator Chris Milisits runs the suspect's criminal history, and learns (buried on page 16) that our suspect was just picked up on a traffic charge in Lee County, SC the day before we made the ID. As luck would have it, he is still in custody in the neighboring Florence County Jail, which has a very nice web interface to it's booking information available to the general public--and quite helpful in creating photo lineups.

Sometimes the stars and the planets align, and everything just comes together. Felony warrants have now been issued in Lincoln and Salina, so the South Carolina authorities will hang onto the suspect.  Too bad the Rolex wasn't among Mr. Quincy Taylor's effects when he was booked. Good work one and all!