The Sideshow‘Polite’ burglar offers to trade items with people he robbed
Hours after breaking into a Washington State home, a burglar dialed up the victimized homeowners' cousin, asking if he could stop by to swap some of the stolen items for a few personal items he'd left behind.
KOMO News reports that the only thing the alleged burglar asked in return from the homeowners was that they not call the police to report the actual crime.
"It's very unusual," Sgt. Kevin Crane of the Bremerton Police Department told KOMO. "I've never seen this happen before where a burglar contacts the victim trying to make a deal to exchange things he left behind for some of the items he stole from the victims."
Earlier on Tuesday, the burglar had fled the scene of the crime after he broke into the residence only to find one of the occupants, a former Marine, was at home and holding a gun. "Get out! I have a gun!" Travis Forman allegedly said, according to KIRO TV.
The robber, Shane Jackman, reportedly said, "Yes, sir!" before running away.
Among the items left behind in the robbery were papers identifying the alleged burglar by name. After realizing he'd left behind some of his own items at the scene of the crime, Jackman then used a cell phone he'd stolen from the house to call Foreman's brother in California.
"He says, 'Hey, I got the guy on the line that apparently stole your stuff. He said he's crying, he's distraught and says he wants to give your stuff back,'" Foreman told KIRO.
When the burglar went back to return some of the stolen items, he found the local police waiting to apprehend him.
"We didn't have his stuff, so obviously he just wasn't that smart at that point," Foreman said.
Nonetheless Sgt. Crane said the thief "remained polite" and apologized to the homeowners even as he was being arrested.
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