Bizarre burglary: Suspected thief arrested after taking a break to read a book
It’s a case of “crime doesn’t pay” in this small town, where a suspected thief has been arrested after pausing mid-crime to indulge in perhaps the most peculiar pastime: reading a book. In the late evening, an alert began to flash from the security system installed in a quaint little bookshop. In fact, there was … The post Bizarre burglary: Suspected thief arrested after taking a break to read a book appeared first on Asaase Radio.
It’s a case of “crime doesn’t pay” in this small town, where a suspected thief has been arrested after pausing mid-crime to indulge in perhaps the most peculiar pastime: reading a book.
In the late evening, an alert began to flash from the security system installed in a quaint little bookshop. In fact, there was a possible break-in, according to motion detectors. The owner immediately dialed a contact number for law enforcement officers.
Police arriving and expecting to find a store ransacked and a burglar fleeing the scene encountered instead a scene that could have been lifted from a quirkily imaginative novel: The suspected burglar, of about thirty years, sat comfortable-looking on the floor near a shelf flipping through the pages of a novel as though he had all the time in the world.
Ironically, this classic crime novel had made the man sit and read. It was not the raid of cash registers or valuables but the story engulfing him into it. By the time the police came, he had been reading in such engrossment that the flashing lights or footsteps of officers entering the store could not grab his attention.
“He did not resist arrest,” one of the officers said. “He was totally composed, almost as if we’d interrupted a reading session in a quiet library, rather than a crime in progress.”
Further investigation showed that he had gained entrance to the bookshop by forcing his way in through a back window. First, he had been rummaging through a few things, but then something about the book caught his eye. It was as if the appeal of literature was not to be resisted, even in the midst of a criminal act.
While in shock from the break-in, the owner of the shop couldn’t help but think that the situation was, well, pretty funny. “I heard of people getting lost in a good book, but I never would have imagined it would be like this,” he said with a jest. “It is not every day that a thief breaks in just to take a reading break.”
The burglar was arrested and booked on counts of breaking and entering. His love for reading would have to wait to see if that would help his situation in court, but soon the story began to flow like wildfire through town, making it one of those bizarre and somewhat comical legends that happen in small towns.
Of course, the thing that was put in the headlines was not the stuff he stole, but the book-the book that made him forget he was in the middle of a crime.
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The post Bizarre burglary: Suspected thief arrested after taking a break to read a book appeared first on Asaase Radio.
