He Applied Himself

I was on morning shift patrol when I was dispatched to a local clothing store in reference to a theft. Upon arrival, I made contact with the store manager. He told me that during morning clean-up one of his employees had found an old dirty pair of shorts in one of the dressing rooms. Inside the pocket of the shorts they found clothing tags that had been ripped off merchandise (a T-shirt and pair of blue jeans). Along with the tags, the store manager found a partially completed job application for a local discount store. After looking over the job application (and frequently pausing to laugh), I had a suspect's name, phone number, last employer and social security number. Our dispatcher was able to cross-reference the phone number to a hard address.

I arrived at the address I'd received from dispatch and knocked on the door. A woman came to the door and I asked her if the suspect was home. He came outside to talk to me and I asked him if he'd had any luck finding a job, to which he answered no. I asked him if the discount store had called him yet, and he asked me how I knew that he wanted a job there. I told him he had to turn the application in to get a response, and at that time I produced the application with his name on it, along with the old pair of shorts. He looked at me and said, "I'm in trouble, ain't I?" to which I said, "Yep!" After a few minutes of talking, he went inside and retrieved the clothes he FORGOT to pay for, and I escorted him to the clothing store where he apologized and pleaded for a second chance. The store manager didn't wish to pursue charges, and I issued a criminal trespass warning and took the kid home.

Christopher A. Miller
Patrolman
Mineral Wells Police Dept.
Mineral Wells, TX