Ypsilanti Wanted Man Finally Gets Nabbed
When it comes to arresting someone for minor crimes, the police tend to avoid bashing the door down in order to get at someone. Which means if that “someone”, in this case: a 51-year-old Ypsilanti resident, simply avoids them and refuses to answer the door when they knock, arrest can be easily avoided.However, avoid them for long enough, and they are likely to resort to more “unconventional methods” to get ahold of you. Which is exactly what happened recently in Ypsilanti, where the local police employed a little Thanksgiving art to manage this “Turkey Takedown.”
Neighbors of the 51-year-old man had apparently lodged numerous complaints against him over the course of several months. He was known for petty acts of malice in his neighborhood, including pouring herbicide on his neighbor’s flowers and shrubs, setting fire to their lawns and exposing himself in an indecent way.
The Ypsilanti police have tried to make contact with the man several times, but he is wily, and refuses to answer the door. This time, however, one particular officer thought of a simple but ingenious way to get the man to leave his house voluntarily.
The officer knocked on the man’s door but, as per the usual, the home’s resident refused to answer the door. He did, however, stand at a nearby window and make obscene gestures at the officer. But, having expected this outcome, the officer resorted to something more unusual to achieve his goals.
The officer stuck a small handmade sign into the man’s lawn near the sidewalk, and then left. The sign was a brightly colored turkey of the variety made by school children every November, using the traced shape of their hand. It had been colored with yellow and orange marker, and looked like it had been drawn by a child. Scrawled across the top were the words: Happy Thanksgiving.
The man, curious about what the officer had planted in his lawn, waited until the police were gone, and then walked out to have a look at the sign. Standing near the sidewalk, he looked at the sign, and then decided that he didn’t like it. He removed and was about to head back in, when the Ypsilanti police arrived out of nowhere.
The police had been surveilling his home, and when the officer planted the sign and walked away, others were hidden nearby waiting for the man to exit. He was arrested, surprisingly without any kind of incident, for several charges including retail fraud, indecent exposure, and driving on a suspended license.