When police officers in the California town of Redding arrived at the scene of an attempted robbery one night earlier this month, they had little to go on, save for a blaring alarm and a broken window. Then they looked at the security-camera video. The tape revealed, as Anthony DeRosa of Reuters observed, an 18-second masterclass in “How Not to Rob a Convenience Store.â€
The Redding Police Department has asked the public for help in identifying the suspect, who made life easier for the authorities by wearing a distinctive outfit and showing his face on camera before pulling down a stocking to conceal it.
The video, posted on YouTube by the Redding Record Searchlight, also shows that moments after he hurled a rock at the sliding-glass front door of Kent’s Meats & Groceries, triggering the alarm, the would-be robber apparently thought better of his crime and immediately turned to run away. Perhaps unable to see through his stocking, the man then fell twice as he made his getaway.
