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Man robs store, then waits for police
Spoksman Review ^ | November 21, 2008 | Jody Lawrence-Turner

Posted on 11/21/2008 8:08:47 PM PST by An Old Man

A 67-year-old man robbed a downtown gas station, police said, then waited for Spokane officers to arrest him.

At 6:24 a.m., John Paul Adams walked into the Shell station at Third Avenue and Maple Street with a loaded .22 rifle, laid it on the counter and said, “Give me what you got,” said Spokane Police Officer Tim Moses.

When the clerk opened the till, the man grabbed several hundred dollars then told the clerk to call the cops, Moses said. Adams went outside, unloaded his gun, leaned it against a phone booth and “then stood there and waited for us.”

(Excerpt) Read more at spokesmanreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist
"Adams was booked into Spokane County Jail on one count of first-degree robbery, Moses said."

"Adams wouldn’t tell police what his motivation was, Moses said. Adams was not homeless. Police impounded the truck he was driving."

This popped out as I was crusing oacross the Internet earlier today. My first impression was the the man was homles and had sought a free bed at the expense of the County. Maybe more information will be forthcoming tomorrow.


1 posted on 11/21/2008 8:08:48 PM PST by An Old Man
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To: Libertina; WKL815; Baumer; Robwin; Scutter; blasater1960; conservative cat; cherry; SatinDoll; ...
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Say WA? Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

2 posted on 11/21/2008 8:09:46 PM PST by sionnsar (Iran Azadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY)|http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com/|RCongressIn2Years)
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To: An Old Man

Did they check to see if he had prison blueprints tattooed on his back?


3 posted on 11/21/2008 8:20:18 PM PST by explodingspleen
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To: An Old Man

the police had to be thinking “ I wish all arrests were this easy”.....they must’ve felt like they were dreaming..


4 posted on 11/21/2008 8:26:48 PM PST by supremedoctrine ('Time is the school in which we learn that time is the fire in which we burn"--Delmore Schwartz)
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To: explodingspleen
Adams was not homeless.

That doesn't necessarily mean anything.

5 posted on 11/21/2008 8:27:10 PM PST by Khepri (NEO-STALIN FASCIST DEFEATS NEO-LIBERAL MAOIST!! How's that working for yah?)
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To: An Old Man

Now Adams can get 3 squares, medical care, dental care, cable TV, exercise facilities and you name it. Not to mention Ice Cream and cake.


6 posted on 11/21/2008 8:34:10 PM PST by Wiggins
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To: Wiggins
If he is married, and goes off to jail, his wife may be able to collect state benefits.

He may be doing it to provide for her.

Or, if she was a nagging shrew, he's doing it to get away from her.

7 posted on 11/21/2008 8:41:25 PM PST by TheWriterTX (Proud Retrosexual Wife of 15 Years)
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To: An Old Man

It might serve him right to get probation.


8 posted on 11/21/2008 8:42:34 PM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: An Old Man

Wow...hope is in short supply today..


9 posted on 11/21/2008 8:46:14 PM PST by padre35 (Conservative in Exile...Rom 10.10..)
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To: An Old Man

I know someone who delivered newspapers to boxes on sidewalks. He would just jump out, run around to the back of his van, open the doors and fill up the box. Turning it off and on too much would wear the starter out and he was right there. So this homeless guy jumps in and crashes into a fire hydrant. He was hungry he said.


10 posted on 11/21/2008 8:46:19 PM PST by autumnraine (Churchill: " we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall never surrender")
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To: TheWriterTX
"He may be doing it to provide for her."

I believe I might do the same if that were the only way to help.

I was doing some work over in the Spokane area about the time Mr. Carter was in the White house. Things got really out of hand and Pend Orille county had an unemployment rate in excess of 30%. Things were really bad and we used to joke about throwing a brick through the police station windows to procure a warm dry place to sleep.

I have this nagging feeling that what we only joked about will soon come to pass all over this nation. It brings back memories of the 1930's and the world I grew up in.

11 posted on 11/21/2008 9:01:07 PM PST by An Old Man (Lead, Follow, or get the hell out of the way)
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To: An Old Man

I heard of a prison guard in Canada that did the same thing. It turned out that his doctor told him he needed a triple bypass and that he wouldn’t survive the waiting list. He computed that for a first offense he would receive 9 month in prison for a robbing a convenience store...and prison inmates don’t have to wait for medical procedures in Canada.


12 posted on 11/21/2008 9:12:51 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: sionnsar

Anybody remember “Barney Miller”, the comedic TV show about cops? It had an episode much like this, with the perp being a guy who had spent most of his life in jail and couldn’t adjust to life on the outside. So he committed some crime (I forget what) then waited for the police to come get him so he could go “home” to prison. I know that doesn’t sound like much of an amusing plot for a comedy sitcom, but it was; and true to the magic of TV, it worked out well for him in the end.


13 posted on 11/21/2008 9:32:09 PM PST by Robwin
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To: An Old Man
What irks me is able-bodied folks "working" the system for benefits, while folks who contributed to the system all their life get little, or nothing, in return.

Happens a lot, unfortunately.

My parents were squirrels, saved every dime. They don't have to worry about SS going bust, because they never counted on it in the first place.

I'm not too worried about the economy tanking. My husband and I have faced financial wars before, and we're still standing, bayonetting the wounded. We know that possessions are just "things."

As long as I can feed my babies and keep a roof over their head (even if it means I sleep on the floor and give them the bed), no problem.

14 posted on 11/21/2008 9:53:59 PM PST by TheWriterTX (Proud Retrosexual Wife of 15 Years)
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To: An Old Man

Several posters have offered reasons why this man might have committed the robbery, but no one has suggested this yet. He may have committed a different serious crime in the past and avoided capture or punishment, and now he feels he should do the time after all. So he commits this new crime to pay for the old one.


15 posted on 11/22/2008 7:54:03 AM PST by Hebrews 11:6 (Do you REALLY believe that (1) God is, and (2) God is good?)
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To: TheWriterTX

When I was in the Army, I witnessed what I call “the Mannheim effect”. A GI arrested for a drug offense “on the Strass”, i.e., off base in Germany could chose to face a court-martial or German civil authorities. Conviction was more or less a forgone conclusion in either case. It they faced German civil authorities, they’d do six months in Mannheim, a German prison, if they chose court-martial two years in Levenworth. They invariably chose the court-martial.

My conclusion: the Germans get a lot more deterence for their buck. Especially considering German prison are ultra sparse. A prisoner is confined in a cell with no glass on the windows, no TV, no recreation (half an hour a day outside the cell for walks in the exercise yard), no library. Like in the old days. Their prisons cost much less to run and violators fear them more.


16 posted on 11/22/2008 8:03:47 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (The Democratic Party strongly supports full civil rights for necro-Americans.)
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To: An Old Man

That’s one way to get away from a nagging wife.


17 posted on 11/22/2008 8:32:17 AM PST by Just Lori (Liberalism ---->Socialism----->Communism------>BONDAGE!!!!)
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