Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dunton. I got a question for you, sir. Do
Speaker 2: you know what's ridiculous? What I do?
Speaker 3: Beyonce? No, they're all going to come and get me.
Speaker 2: I'm coming out to get.
Speaker 3: Let me finish my thought. So Beyonce, I don't know
Speaker 3: if you heard. She had an album called Renaissance that
Speaker 3: came out of this, and then she had another album
Speaker 3: called Cowboy Carter and on both of them, apparently the
Speaker 3: cover has the picture of a horse. Yeah, and so
Speaker 3: do you know, Oh my god, anyway, do you know
Speaker 3: the name of the horse on the Renaissance album? Steve Well,
Speaker 3: the fans the high they were calling it rene Renaissance
Speaker 3: and then ny I g h okay. Well, so anyway,
Speaker 3: Justina Omakua, who is the senior vice president at Parkwood Entertainment,
Speaker 3: Beyonce's production and management company, clarified, No, no, no, no, the
Speaker 3: horse is named shardonay with any like at the end. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's it's a it's a tragedy. So Shardona is the
Speaker 3: name of the buttery shard And that's ridiculous. But wait
Speaker 3: there's more. Oh no, yeah, so people hear about this, like, oh,
Speaker 3: that's cute. Like no, but I do have to tell you,
Speaker 3: Bold refined Horsey. Now you can blame. You can blame
Speaker 3: Michelle Zibadiba on Instagram and k Law on Instagram. They're
Speaker 3: the ones, the first two through the gate who told
Speaker 3: us about this. All right, Bold refined Horsey. What am
Speaker 3: I talking about? Yes, I am talking about the fact
Speaker 3: that Arby's released uh Horsey sauce, which apparently that's their life.
Speaker 2: I heard people reference these people. They're going on my list.
Speaker 3: Yeah, put them on there with like Cheetos and all them.
Speaker 3: They have released a Horsey sauce that's infused with Shardonnay
Speaker 3: wine and it's called Chardonnaise with the any Igh Horsey Sauce.
Speaker 3: And it's in this like frosted glass wine bottle, sixteen
Speaker 3: dollars a bottle. It has. The package has a silhouette
Speaker 3: of quote, a majestic horse in mid.
Speaker 2: Gallop for a mayonnaise sauce.
Speaker 3: I suppose, yeah.
Speaker 2: Its right. I'm assuming that's.
Speaker 3: A no because they got the idea from.
Speaker 2: From the I know, but I'm assuming it's a mayonnaise
Speaker 2: space sauce.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I've never had Horsey sauce. What is it? Is it
Speaker 3: like donkey sauce? Whatever? I've never been to an Arby
Speaker 3: can I can? I admit that.
Speaker 2: Which could beat each other in a fight. Horsey sauce
Speaker 2: or donkey sauce. Donkey I'm saying donkey sauce.
Speaker 3: Every time, especially if Guy Fieri did a mashup between
Speaker 3: donkey sauce and he brought in Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabbo tequila.
Speaker 3: Like anyway, So if you want some chardonnayse Arby's horse
Speaker 3: Horsey sauce, which, oh, there's just a lot for me
Speaker 3: to talk about, you have to go to the Arby's
Speaker 3: website and sign up for their Arby's Club. I didn't
Speaker 3: I was going to sign you up for Club Arby's,
Speaker 3: but I didn't know. I didn't do it. I didn't
Speaker 3: do it. It's oh, it's a signature horse Radish sauce with a.
Speaker 2: It's a roast beef place, the.
Speaker 3: Beef people, of course. Okay, anyway, so this has gone
Speaker 3: on way too long.
Speaker 2: You know about them, right? They have the meats.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what they tell me. If I were to
Speaker 3: watch TV and.
Speaker 2: I assume they also have the meat sweats.
Speaker 3: Of course they do. Of course they.
Speaker 2: That's daring, ridiculous. I know you know else is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Tell me how about a guy who makes corporate practices
Speaker 2: the basis for his outlandish crimes. Yeah, Elizabeth, this cat
Speaker 2: he's a break in artist with a McDonald's problem.
Speaker 3: Oh mashup.
Speaker 2: No, this is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and
Speaker 2: outrageous capers, ice and cons. It's always ninety nine percent
Speaker 2: murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. Cheers, Elizabeth Jarh
Speaker 2: November nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 3: I remember it.
Speaker 2: You do? You remember en times we had in November
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight. It's so good.
Speaker 3: Keep going.
Speaker 2: Let me take you back the song do Wop That Thing?
Speaker 2: By Lauren Hill? Yeah, number one on the Billboard charts. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you loved that song, sure, Aaron, Lauren Hill. Sure you
Speaker 2: even wore your hair like hers and sister Act too Appropriation, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, came out in nineteen ninety three, which
Speaker 2: is just two years after your new favorite bank ribery film,
Speaker 2: Point Break. Yes, did you know Point Break came out
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety one?
Speaker 3: You're kidding me, sort of? I had no idea, right,
Speaker 3: and I've never heard that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you'll remember it later anyway. Also on the radio,
Speaker 2: back in nineteen ninety eight, your man was holding it
Speaker 2: down in the number forty spot on the Billboard chart. Man,
Speaker 2: he's new to the charts. It's his first time in
Speaker 2: such rarefied air. This was his first hit off of
Speaker 2: his third album, but it won't be his last. In
Speaker 2: ninety eight, it's his first big hit song. It's called
Speaker 2: hard knock life ghetto anthem. That's right at your man.
Speaker 3: Jay Z horse face as you call it.
Speaker 2: He's got a long nogging. What was going on at
Speaker 2: the Cineplex Elizabeth in November of nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 3: November ninety eight, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: And by the way, if jay Z has horse face,
Speaker 2: and so does Troy Aikman, So really I'm shooting a
Speaker 2: lot over here. I'm wide shots anyway, November ninety eight
Speaker 2: at the Cineplex. You remember movies, right, That's where the
Speaker 2: group it was a group activity, was it.
Speaker 3: People?
Speaker 2: They would go and they would sit in a darkened
Speaker 2: room and they would stare at a blank screen. In
Speaker 2: every twenty fourth of a second, a new image would
Speaker 2: be projected onto the screen. Right, It was amazing. It's
Speaker 2: this steady stream of images would be creating the simulation
Speaker 2: of movement paired with sound. It was a very evocative
Speaker 2: art form. Sadly it's been forgotten to history. Kids today
Speaker 2: they see pictures of movie theaters from the nineties and
Speaker 2: they will often mistake them for some sort of like
Speaker 2: an ancient ritual space, like it was a cult. Perhaps, yeah,
Speaker 2: a church dedicated to snacks and cold drinks. Anyway, back
Speaker 2: in November of nineteen ninety eight at the box office,
Speaker 2: can you guess what the number one movie was?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: The water Boy?
Speaker 3: Oh goodness, it was such a bleak time nineties.
Speaker 2: Harder question. What was the third highest grossing film of
Speaker 2: November nineteen ninety eight?
Speaker 3: Was it another Adam sit where They're too?
Speaker 2: No, but it was a movie that was part of
Speaker 2: what you Love, which is two movies that come out
Speaker 2: at the same time and people can't decide.
Speaker 3: Which one is an asteroid movie.
Speaker 2: No, good guess though it was? It was an insect movie.
Speaker 3: That's my Oh, bugs and ants?
Speaker 2: Yes, which one a bugs? Life did better?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: Okay, okay. Last question of our cinema ninety eight pop quiz,
Speaker 2: Keep going Elizabeth for the Grand Prize. I love pennies.
Speaker 2: Can you correctly name the number four highest grossing film
Speaker 2: of November nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 3: Okay, so we've got water Boy and Bugs.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll throw in here just to help you.
Speaker 3: Oscar Bait.
Speaker 2: Number two was the Rugrats movie. Just, oh my god,
Speaker 2: throw that rounded?
Speaker 3: Was it a film for grown up?
Speaker 2: This was the first film for grown ups on our list.
Speaker 3: Okay, tell me who was in it? Tell me one
Speaker 3: person who is oh man?
Speaker 2: Okay, one person. I'm going to start from the bottom
Speaker 2: of the list. This film had an amazing cast, right,
Speaker 2: and I'm just gonna listen to some people I liked
Speaker 2: at the bottom of the Lisa Bonnet, Regina King, Jack Black,
Speaker 2: Jason Lee, the pro skater thing, Yes, skater, Jake Busey,
Speaker 2: son of the Busy, Scott Cohn, son of the con
Speaker 2: So we got two sons of it's so rich with
Speaker 2: nineties goodness. Do you want the top guys? You'll immediately
Speaker 2: know the film if I say tell you the top
Speaker 2: guys Will Smith and Gene Hackman.
Speaker 3: Oh what's it called?
Speaker 2: I love this film. I'll give you a hint.
Speaker 3: So's it's on the tip of my tongue.
Speaker 2: Will Smith. At one point in the trailer he asked
Speaker 2: Gene Hackman, what the hell is happening, and then Gene
Speaker 2: Hackman says, I blow up the building, and Will Smith
Speaker 2: is like why, and then Gene Hackman shouts back, because
Speaker 2: you made a phone call. I jumped out of my seat. Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: give me the name Enemy of the State.
Speaker 3: That's right, Lisa bonet me.
Speaker 2: That was the college girlfriend for Will Smith. Gena King
Speaker 2: was the White anyway, Elizabeth and a movie that launched
Speaker 2: later a blank one eighty two album with a similar name.
Speaker 2: Oh that's Right of the State.
Speaker 3: Boom, Yeah, there it is. Wow, it's all coming together,
Speaker 3: you guys.
Speaker 2: Nineties action films they hold so much. If Jerry Bruckheimer
Speaker 2: produced it, I'm gonna watch it, right, I mean, come on, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: Amy the State, right, I mean Enemy? This date is
Speaker 2: great because it's this paranoid action thriller about how the
Speaker 2: NSA is watching everything. It's like this post Watergate paranoid
Speaker 2: thrillers of the seventies, but now it's like you know,
Speaker 2: the Parallax few with the Warren Baby, right but now,
Speaker 2: which I also love that movie. But anyway, I love
Speaker 2: paranoid thrillers. I think the point is that they're like
Speaker 2: key holes in for like the moment in that time. Right.
Speaker 2: But anyway, if Tony Scott made it, I'm gonna watch
Speaker 2: that one. Took True Romance, not a paranoid thriller. But
Speaker 2: I love that Tony Scott film. Interesting anyway, it's another movie.
Speaker 2: I love them, just laying out movies I love.
Speaker 3: But besides, that's what today's show is about. Movies we love.
Speaker 2: November of nineteen ninety eight, jay Zy Hard Knock Life
Speaker 2: Gene Hackman, An Enemy of the State. That was November ninetea, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: you remember it well, right, anyway, that's same November. That's
Speaker 2: the time when today's perp first started getting busy. I
Speaker 2: want you to be able to know the context in
Speaker 2: which he was.
Speaker 3: Well, it's actually very important.
Speaker 2: I think it helps sometimes in this case it does matter.
Speaker 2: So today, Elizabeth, I want to tell you the story
Speaker 2: of the Roofman, Jeffrey Manchester.
Speaker 3: The Roofman. What were we talking about yesterday? Oh, rack Man.
Speaker 3: There was like some business where they sell racks. It
Speaker 3: looks like, yeah, saying it sounds like it sounds like
Speaker 3: something that in like a hip hop song would be
Speaker 3: the name of like a like a guy who sells
Speaker 3: drugs on the corner to see the rack man, Like
Speaker 3: I'm too old to know that. Yeah, and so Roofman
Speaker 3: also sounds like that, like there's gonna be a whole
Speaker 3: thing like forty talking about Roofman. I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, You're like I thought I brought my jeep there
Speaker 2: and got a new roof rat.
Speaker 3: And then I'm like trying to act cool, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I got this from the roofman.
Speaker 2: Okay, lady, lady, it's not a local advertising thing.
Speaker 3: Like but jay Z told me say it.
Speaker 2: Well, we were recommended this story by a few rude dudes.
Speaker 3: Oh really Yeah.
Speaker 2: Most recently Brandy This, a comic from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She
Speaker 2: suggested we do this one, and I just happened to
Speaker 2: be reading up on him when she tweeted me about
Speaker 2: this synchronous So I bump the Roofman right to the
Speaker 2: top of the big board. Is I mean you said synchronicity,
Speaker 2: I think of serendipity. It's happening. It's an idiot.
Speaker 3: It's all connected.
Speaker 2: Government named for this cat. Jeffrey Allen, Manchester, Jeffrey, Yeah,
Speaker 2: which makes him my second favorite. Jeffrey Allen. I've covered
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Allen. Yes, Jeffrey Allen. Lash look him up anyway,
Speaker 2: this guy norcow guy.
Speaker 3: Elizabeth's jamming the Bay jam. So.
Speaker 2: He was born in Sacramento in seventy one.
Speaker 3: Good for him.
Speaker 2: You went to Rancho Cordova.
Speaker 3: High, Okay, second a kid, yeah right, you know.
Speaker 2: Your man Hurtcane. He graduated, went on to enlist in
Speaker 2: the army. He joins the eighty second Airborne. You know,
Speaker 2: the eighty second Airborne.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your service.
Speaker 2: Do you know about the airborne. That's the paratroope.
Speaker 3: You're in the sky.
Speaker 2: They jump out of the planeanes thick, easy company and
Speaker 2: band of brothers. Right. They parachute behind enemy lines with
Speaker 2: a rifle and that's about it. Okay, right, there's they
Speaker 2: can do on their own.
Speaker 3: They just parachute and then they don't do anything. That's
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: That's it. The scarecrow. Now stand there. So paratrooper eighty
Speaker 2: second Airborne jeff Manchester. He is trained in the military
Speaker 2: arts of his particular task. And his task. He gets
Speaker 2: really good at a repelling, so he's good with ropes,
Speaker 2: climbing gear. He was also skilled at dropping to the
Speaker 2: grounds from a great height.
Speaker 3: Oh, I say I could do that.
Speaker 2: I know you can do that. But he gave it
Speaker 2: from way higher than you and land it stick the
Speaker 2: landing the hospital. Yeah, there's no hospital trips for him.
Speaker 2: No bruises like livers, none of that. No skilled camouflage
Speaker 2: and evasion as well. Yeah really yeah, you.
Speaker 3: Like it's like the back of a g I Joe totally.
Speaker 3: So tell you more about this cat so code name so.
Speaker 2: Like many who listen in the military, Jeff man Manchester,
Speaker 2: he got married young, right he was twenty?
Speaker 3: Did he have a dodge charger dodge magnet so.
Speaker 2: By nineteen ninety nine, though, Jeff Manchester and his young family,
Speaker 2: they were living in Conquered, California, Conquered just over the
Speaker 2: hill from here. He was stationed at the Naval Weapons
Speaker 2: station there at Conquered And in November nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 2: Jeff Manchester's wife said, Hey, I want a divorce. Oh
Speaker 2: I'm out deuces.
Speaker 3: That's sad.
Speaker 2: Not really, it was good for her because the couple,
Speaker 2: the couple had a fight. I don't know exactly what happened,
Speaker 2: but you know, perhaps she discovered her husband's big secret
Speaker 2: that he was an accomplished break in artist to spend
Speaker 2: his nights burgling local businesses as the roofman. Or maybe
Speaker 2: she's just like, I'm tired of your snoring. I don't
Speaker 2: know what happened when something happened.
Speaker 3: So either way, she signed on for life.
Speaker 2: You know, got I feel you on that. But when
Speaker 2: you're married to Rufman, that's a different question. So, by
Speaker 2: the way, when you have the name Rufman, as you
Speaker 2: can no doubt guess there's a story behind you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh really, yes.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth, I'm gonna tell you that story. So Jeff Manchester
Speaker 2: he earned his norm du crime for his work as
Speaker 2: a regional tile distributor like a roofing tile. No, he
Speaker 2: did not do that. It was his habit of breaking
Speaker 2: into businesses through the roof and then stealing whatever cash
Speaker 2: he could find. Yes, the Roofman was particularly fond of McDonald's.
Speaker 2: Starting back in November of nineteen ninety eight, a year
Speaker 2: before he got divorced, he began a crime spreed that
Speaker 2: stretched across the country. We're talking. He robbed spots in California, Nevada, Oregon, Massachusetts, Maryland,
Speaker 2: North Carolina, Virginia, Minnesota right now. In California, he broke
Speaker 2: into McDonald's restaurants in towns you know, places you've been to,
Speaker 2: San Luis, Obispo, Sam Pedro down South up here. He
Speaker 2: hit spots like Emeryville, Dublin, Pleasanton, Pleasant Hill, from Roseville
Speaker 2: to Placerville, all around the Sacramento.
Speaker 3: County Whereville McDonald's is.
Speaker 2: I think you do too. So based on eyewitness accounts
Speaker 2: of the roofman, the police gave this description of the perp. Right,
Speaker 2: They're like, be on the lookout for this guy who's
Speaker 2: probably between eighteen and thirty years old. He was sought
Speaker 2: to anywhere between five seven and six foot three. That's
Speaker 2: that's a hell of a ring exactly. He looked like
Speaker 2: a roof To put that into perspective, the range five
Speaker 2: seven to six foot three, that starts with like Mark
Speaker 2: Hamill and Robin Williams and like Willem Dafoe, they're all
Speaker 2: five foot seven actors. At six three, you got Chris
Speaker 2: Hemsworth aka Funny Hammer Guy. Yeah, yeah, so he's six three.
Speaker 2: So if you're looking for a guy somewhere between Robin
Speaker 2: Williams and the guy who plays Thor.
Speaker 3: And you don't have your glasses on, and he's like
Speaker 3: moving around and bend and you.
Speaker 2: May not know, possibly moving quick. Who knows? So this
Speaker 2: cat roof man. The cops also pointed out a couple
Speaker 2: other things. They said he had a prominent Adam's Apple.
Speaker 3: Wait, now hold on, you can you can't tell if
Speaker 3: he's a little in but.
Speaker 2: People have noticed this. Yeah, it must be really pro
Speaker 2: it's even it's even better Elizabeth. Also apparently he had
Speaker 2: a pair of noticeably fold lips.
Speaker 3: What did he look like? Well, he had pillowy.
Speaker 2: Lips, an apple, cozy bosom, and I quote he also
Speaker 2: had extremely athletic build. It sounds like the copa roof
Speaker 2: man if only I can swipe right on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like their dating profile. He has to be
Speaker 3: anywhere between five seven and sixth Street, but he must
Speaker 3: have beautiful casts.
Speaker 2: Mike van Winkle from the California Department of Justice. He
Speaker 2: said that the Roofman was and I quote, business like
Speaker 2: and focused and very serious about what he does.
Speaker 3: You carry a briefcase, but many.
Speaker 2: Of those he robbed have been struck by What a
Speaker 2: nice decent guy. He seems to be a real gentleman.
Speaker 2: I really hope that the cost. I hope that they
Speaker 2: find the roofman, because they seem really sprung.
Speaker 3: They have a future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, who knows, but I can see why
Speaker 2: they love him. He's good. Right, As Van Winkle said,
Speaker 2: it's human nature that when you find something that works,
Speaker 2: you continue to do it. And he also added, and
Speaker 2: I quote he knows that unlike banks, where you often
Speaker 2: encounter silent alarms, video cameras and armed security guards, that's
Speaker 2: not the case with fast food places. Like he's a
Speaker 2: smart guy.
Speaker 5: This guy his intellect if he's reinventing robbing seven months
Speaker 5: free Jeff Manchester, he burgled forty restaurants, pulling a total
Speaker 5: of one hundred grand.
Speaker 2: Right, but as good as the cops made him out
Speaker 2: to be, Rufman did occasionally run into troubles. Like his
Speaker 2: mo o was to start from the roof. He'd find
Speaker 2: a McDonald's he liked the looks of. Then he would
Speaker 2: grab up his bag of drills and hammers and axes.
Speaker 2: You get up there and repel up or whatever. Then
Speaker 2: he'd chop into the roof and then he'd drill a hole.
Speaker 2: Sometimes he couldn't get in so right later on cops
Speaker 2: would discover some like half drilled hole, a mess of
Speaker 2: abandoned tools, right, And other times he didn't do enough research,
Speaker 2: so he'd get there he'd drill his hole. So when
Speaker 2: he was in fulsome right Falls in California, he drilled
Speaker 2: a hole in the roof, dropped in, but the restaurant
Speaker 2: was closed. He's like, damn it, right.
Speaker 3: There was another place he was going in when it
Speaker 3: was open.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he would go in late at night to rob them.
Speaker 2: So basically right at the end of the.
Speaker 3: Ship, when people were still in there.
Speaker 2: Yes, well the employees were still in the right time.
Speaker 3: You can't repel up, right, you can only repel down.
Speaker 2: You basically repelled down. Yeah, but I mean like you
Speaker 2: can pull, you.
Speaker 3: Can climb on when you go up climbing, something.
Speaker 2: Telling you mountain climbing. That's why it's called climbing high.
Speaker 2: So other times he would cut a hole in the
Speaker 2: wrong place and he'd wound up in like a tiny
Speaker 2: spot behind a freezer. You know, it's just like stuck, Yeah,
Speaker 2: a little Heidi hole. So in Plasterville, he almost got
Speaker 2: caught when the police arrived on the scene. He was
Speaker 2: still inside the McDonald's. So the cops spot Jeff Manchester
Speaker 2: inside and he spots the cops. So what did he do?
Speaker 2: He jumps out of like I don't know, I imagine the
Speaker 2: drive through window, and then he makes a run for it.
Speaker 2: The local cops they give chase, right, but they haven't
Speaker 2: had to do this kind of exercise in a while.
Speaker 2: So yeah, right, So the roof man when he makes
Speaker 2: a run for it, remember he's got that real extreme
Speaker 2: physically fit body, and he's like, a yeah, exactly, it's
Speaker 2: got those amazing calves.
Speaker 3: Have you seen the caves?
Speaker 2: If he wore short shorts, I'm telling you, I had
Speaker 2: to eat it up. So anyway, he runs down to
Speaker 2: Highway fifty, right, because they're in. He runs down the
Speaker 2: Highway fifty. He runs across the freeway, four lanes of
Speaker 2: speed and traffic. He loses the cops on the other side.
Speaker 2: They're like, I get paid enough for that, right, he
Speaker 2: gets away. The reason why he's so successful for so
Speaker 2: long was that he targeted teens who were working at
Speaker 2: night under supervised totally. Because I remember, as I said,
Speaker 2: this is the nineties, right, So the weak spot in
Speaker 2: the American capitalism in the late nineties were all the
Speaker 2: teenage assistant managers working at a McDonald's on a school night.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, like I'm not going to be a hero.
Speaker 2: No, totally. The roofman he droves a two foot by
Speaker 2: two foot hole he drops into a fast food spot,
Speaker 2: usually McDonald's. The employees would be like almost closing. They're
Speaker 2: stunned by this guy's mask. He's got like a semi
Speaker 2: automatic weapon. He's demanding the day's receipts. They're like, oh, sure,
Speaker 2: here you go. Here's all thirteen hundred dollars. Man, would
Speaker 2: you want to go back through your hole now? So
Speaker 2: the money? He would order that the employees into a
Speaker 2: back room, maybe a walk in fridge.
Speaker 3: That's dangerous.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, totally. But he would always then call the
Speaker 2: cops to have them come and let the kids out. Wow.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, totally right. Detective from Lodi, California, who investigated
Speaker 2: robbery your spot right, he described the Roofman's mo as saying,
Speaker 2: how quote as he herds them into the cooler, He'll say, well,
Speaker 2: look at it this way, at least you'll get the
Speaker 2: rest of the day off. He's definitely not your typical
Speaker 2: hands up. This is a robbery kind of crook. Yeah.
Speaker 2: In fact, he was memorable for his kindness as consideration.
Speaker 2: One McDonald's manager remembered that end I quote. He was
Speaker 2: really polite. He was apologizing. He said, would you please,
Speaker 2: ma'am get on the floor, Would you please, ma'am, just
Speaker 2: get down, like when he was in a pleasant hill,
Speaker 2: you know, pleasant he asked employees, He robbed, can you
Speaker 2: please get in the freezer?
Speaker 3: The Sacramento be right, your beautiful mouth says it. I'll
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 2: Those pillowy lips tell me what to do. So the
Speaker 2: Sacramento b newspaper they wrote about Roofman, how he enjoyed
Speaker 2: quote a coast to coast reputation. Is the most courteous
Speaker 2: thief in the nation. They're dropping bars at the video
Speaker 2: over here. Anyway. Other times he gets noted for giving
Speaker 2: employees coats before he locked him into the walk in fridge.
Speaker 2: The guy's a sweetheart, right. But now obviously he would
Speaker 2: show up with a loaded firearm. So sometimes he had
Speaker 2: to let off a few from the semiauto to get respect.
Speaker 2: But he put him into like the floor of those ceiling,
Speaker 2: not at people, you know. Other times he one time
Speaker 2: he shot out a glass door to make his escape,
Speaker 2: which is just dramatic. That's fun. Anyway, Clovis police lieutenant,
Speaker 2: they once noted that for a guy holding a gun,
Speaker 2: he was pretty mellow. He wasn't excited in the least,
Speaker 2: all right, So even the cops, they love him everywhere
Speaker 2: he goes. Now, now, now that we've gotten to know
Speaker 2: the roof man, let's take a little break, a little
Speaker 2: and after this, I'll tell you why he focused on McDonald's.
Speaker 2: But also there's so so much more, like just wait
Speaker 2: till we get to toys r us Oh and Rebecca
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Hi, I know, Hi? So why McDonald's why not?
Speaker 2: What did the roof man have against the red wigged
Speaker 2: clown and his fast food spot?
Speaker 3: I don't know. He wanted to be a hamburglar?
Speaker 2: Why did Yeah? Why did he want to be the
Speaker 2: real world hamburglar? When McDonald's became aware of this burglar
Speaker 2: who kept targeting their franchisees, yeah, they were pretty proud
Speaker 2: of his brand loyalty.
Speaker 3: Oh really, Yeah.
Speaker 2: There was an official who was not named in the
Speaker 2: stories I found, but he said, and I quote, he
Speaker 2: likes us. He's very brand loyal, a loyal customer, and
Speaker 2: we work hard to build that loyalty.
Speaker 3: And he was unnamed. Yeah, oh, my god, you know that,
Speaker 3: like the higher ups are reading this to me, like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, would you come on, You've got to
Speaker 3: figure out who that.
Speaker 2: Was that guy from Clovis. So, Elizabeth, if you were
Speaker 2: the roof woman, yeah, what would be what would be
Speaker 2: your McDonald's? What store would you constantly break into? Burgle
Speaker 2: Like here, I'll give you time to think. As an example,
Speaker 2: I go with the store that sells kettle corn, just
Speaker 2: all sorts of varieties my house. I know what do
Speaker 2: you think? I got the idea there's a cattle store dedicated.
Speaker 2: I'm coming through the roof. Just get back in. I'm
Speaker 2: like walking out. I got all the kettle corn for day.
Speaker 3: You know what I would do?
Speaker 2: What you do?
Speaker 3: Like the mattress firm. First of all, you drop through,
Speaker 3: you land on a mattress.
Speaker 2: Hello, I like this thinking, and you know, just.
Speaker 3: Find me a good pillowtop o man. And then you know,
Speaker 3: we have all these theories that those are money laundering.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to imagine serious cash in there.
Speaker 2: And if you get the right day that they're doing
Speaker 2: the deliveries for the.
Speaker 3: Washing yep, I'm the mattress mama.
Speaker 2: What did you do yourself? I'm not even going to
Speaker 2: take that cheap shot that I could. I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 2: looking at me being a gentleman, Elizabeth. Moving on, the
Speaker 2: real reason why Jeff Manchester McDonald's was not his love
Speaker 2: of big Maxim broken shake machines. Now, the truth was
Speaker 2: far more mundane than that, you see, Elizabeth. He worked
Speaker 2: there as a teen. It was the nineties. Everybody works
Speaker 2: as a team, So he knew McDonald's. He knew the schedule,
Speaker 2: he knew a manager would likely leave early and let
Speaker 2: a teen assistant manager close up. He knew that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he knew their restaurants, right, He knew their whole routine,
Speaker 2: so it didn't matter if it was fulsome California, Devil's Triangle,
Speaker 2: North Carolina. He knew the layout before he walked in.
Speaker 2: Sometimes they were so cookie cutter. I mean, he knew
Speaker 2: where the back office would be from the rooftop, all right.
Speaker 3: So he's just whipping up a couple quarter pounders while
Speaker 3: he's waiting.
Speaker 2: He just got to go and cook and like, right,
Speaker 2: go get the cash. I'm gonna flip these burdens. So
Speaker 2: he was like, you know, basically robbing the same restaurant
Speaker 2: over and over and over again, and for a military man,
Speaker 2: it's this is ideal. He had the same mission every
Speaker 2: time and he could just perfect it. He's just dialing
Speaker 2: it in. So, but I'll be honest, he wasn't exclusive
Speaker 2: to MCD, despite what the fast food giant would tell you.
Speaker 2: His brand loyalty also extended to I mean extended far.
Speaker 2: He would even be He would rob a burger king
Speaker 2: in the Burger Wars. He was on both sides of
Speaker 2: the battlefield.
Speaker 3: No, he'sire it is so.
Speaker 2: He would also burgle other spots, other restaurants, places that
Speaker 2: weren't restaurants, grocery stores, Blockbuster video, maybe a home base
Speaker 2: or a toys r us. More on that later. So
Speaker 2: the deal is the roofman is mostly driving around our
Speaker 2: old stomping grounds into our cow drilling holes into roofs McDonald's,
Speaker 2: dropping in on unsuspecting teens working the night shift on
Speaker 2: a Tuesday, on a school night, and he shepherd them
Speaker 2: into the walk in fridge, sweet talk them a little,
Speaker 2: then rob the place blind and walk out.
Speaker 3: Did he leave?
Speaker 2: He usually just walk right out here? Why climb back
Speaker 2: up the hole? He never got caught, his glorious hole.
Speaker 2: He never got caught Elizabeth. One investigator believed he was
Speaker 2: so good. They thought, this cat will never get caught.
Speaker 2: There's no chance for us.
Speaker 3: He's just so good, he's so beautiful.
Speaker 2: And why because the roofman was quote extremely fast, strong,
Speaker 2: and has kept his cool when cornered. Now nothing good
Speaker 2: can last forever. Oh my god, you can just Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm like steam and Jean's over here, officer. So what's
Speaker 2: next for Rufman? Obviously he must have gotten caught if
Speaker 2: he's on this show, so he indeed get caught. I'll
Speaker 2: just skip to the end on that. But in May
Speaker 2: two thousand, Jeff Manchester he was sent east. Right, he
Speaker 2: was stationed in North Carolina, which is what ended his
Speaker 2: North cal crime spree because now he's slipped in a
Speaker 2: whole different states. And also it ended his crime spree
Speaker 2: in general because though he goes out one night.
Speaker 3: At this point, did he find the Lord?
Speaker 2: Well, he was in the four hundred and eighty first
Speaker 2: Transportation Company, Right, he gets sent out to North Carolina
Speaker 2: for an annual training exercise. He's like still in the service,
Speaker 2: right was he?
Speaker 3: Where was he sent? I don't know where. They air
Speaker 3: army in Gastonia. Oh I know where that is right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So May twentieth, he drops into McDonald's in Gastonia,
Speaker 2: but it was closed. Oops. He didn't do enough survice
Speaker 2: on he was just like, I guess working out a jag.
Speaker 2: He's like, I just got here. I gotta go steal something.
Speaker 3: It's like if you go to in fayette Fille, North Carolina,
Speaker 3: if you're driving up, I think that's Marines. Though they
Speaker 3: have like.
Speaker 2: There's a ton of base.
Speaker 3: The people, all the parachuters like to see them, like
Speaker 3: littering the sky, these little boys.
Speaker 2: You look across the horizon.
Speaker 3: It's so creepy. It's strange. But so I wonder if
Speaker 3: he was sent to fat Mom.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's what they called me. Yeah, I don't I
Speaker 2: don't know where exactly, but uh, I just know this
Speaker 2: Elizabeth And as far as the crime goes, that same
Speaker 2: night he decided, you know what, I got my jag.
Speaker 2: I just didn't do it for me. So he went.
Speaker 2: He drove ten miles down the road to a town
Speaker 2: called Belmont, and he had a second McDonald's. Okay, he'd
Speaker 2: waited so long. It was five hours later now, right,
Speaker 2: so the McDonald's it was closed, but he thought he'd
Speaker 2: wait for the morning rush and be like, open up
Speaker 2: and give me the receipts from last night, right, some
Speaker 2: employees they come in. He surprises them. He robs the place.
Speaker 2: He ushered them into the walk in fridge. But apparently
Speaker 2: this wasn't like a nighttime teenager assistant manager. This guy
Speaker 2: was on it right. He breaks them out of the
Speaker 2: walk in fridge, He escapes, calls the cops. Police arrive
Speaker 2: in time that Manchester is still inside the McDonald's, but
Speaker 2: he spots the cops. He makes a run for it
Speaker 2: once again. I'm imagining him jumping out of the drive
Speaker 2: through a window. And of course why not, you know,
Speaker 2: Bellemont cops they give chase, and unlike the California cops,
Speaker 2: you chase these guys. They're relentless. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: They chase Rufman into the woods, into the brush, over
Speaker 2: a hill and dale. He gets basically located in like
Speaker 2: a bunch of tall grass. He gets tired of running.
Speaker 2: He just lays low. Doesn't work. When he gets caught.
Speaker 2: He doesn't get into a shootout, he doesn't swing on
Speaker 2: the cops. Instead, he just looks up at the arresting
Speaker 2: officers and says, you guys did a real good job today,
Speaker 2: and they're.
Speaker 3: Like, oh my god, he's so putty.
Speaker 2: He spoke to us. Did you see those lips so full?
Speaker 2: Do you think he had work done? So in custody,
Speaker 2: Roofman said he wasn't the guy who robbed McDonald's in California,
Speaker 2: which they may hear about. No, that he was just a.
Speaker 3: Copy like preemptively telling.
Speaker 2: Me, yeah, He's like, I'm just a copycat imitating that guy.
Speaker 2: So if you hear anything, I wasn't there. The problem
Speaker 2: with that story was his military records. They neatly corresponded
Speaker 2: with the timing and the locations of all the burglaries.
Speaker 2: So jeff Manchester, he gets sent to prison. He's thirty
Speaker 2: three years old. It's his Jesus here, Elizabeth. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: like Jesus, heyesus Christo, he too, rolled back the rock
Speaker 2: and came back from the dead. For four years, Jeffrey
Speaker 2: Manchester was on his best behavior. He earns the wardens
Speaker 2: trust Elizabeth. He gets rewarded with the job in the
Speaker 2: prison metal shop. Then he starts to track the trucks
Speaker 2: that come in and out of the prison. He decides,
Speaker 2: you know what, that's gonna be my way out of here,
Speaker 2: so he takes some plywood he paints it black. Then
Speaker 2: in June, he climbs under an outgoing truck. He fastens
Speaker 2: his plywood platform to the bottom. He secrets himself away.
Speaker 2: He tucks in some cardboard to take care of the sides.
Speaker 2: Truck drives out of the prison roofman goes with it. Wow,
Speaker 2: first time a prisoner had ever escaped from this recently
Speaker 2: built prison. Word spreads of his escape right some of
Speaker 2: the officers who had been investigating him back in northern California,
Speaker 2: they started on the grape Vinyl officers. They're like, this
Speaker 2: is like pretty much pre social media, pre internet kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. So they're calling around. I guess Jose de
Speaker 2: Latoa he hears about this. He's like, you gotta be
Speaker 2: kidding me. Anytime someone escapes, it's surprising. But this guy
Speaker 2: was very good at what he did. So once again,
Speaker 2: now he's free. He's out. He climbs down from the
Speaker 2: hidden platform. He hitchhikes to This is Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker 2: And this is two thousand and four, mind you. Right.
Speaker 2: In the fall of two thousand and four, a man
Speaker 2: named John Zorn makes a new life for himself in Charlotte.
Speaker 3: John Zorn, that is such a fake. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So he sinks some roots in the community and
Speaker 2: it's the South Elizabeth. What does that mean. It means
Speaker 2: he goes and he attends Crossroads Presbyterian Church. You gotta
Speaker 2: get yourself a church. He gets himself a church. And
Speaker 2: he was as he was, you know, his neighbors described
Speaker 2: him as a quiet, unassuming man. He told folks he
Speaker 2: worked for the government. A lot of people do back there,
Speaker 2: and the sort of government job where he had a
Speaker 2: security clearance and thus he couldn't talk about it convenient.
Speaker 2: This satisfied most of the folks, like what a good patriot.
Speaker 2: So at church, John Zorn, he met a woman named
Speaker 2: Lee Wayne's Cot and they were close in age, although
Speaker 2: she was a few years older. Just a couple, but
Speaker 2: the two hit it off. Lee, the way she recalled it,
Speaker 2: John Zorn was quote funny, romantic, the most sensitive man
Speaker 2: I've ever met. She also added, and I quote the
Speaker 2: guy that every girl would want, Lee, I got some
Speaker 2: bad news for you. Also, every cop.
Speaker 3: Biggest Adam Zeppelin ever seen.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you. Well, he was a forty year old
Speaker 2: single mother, right, so she couldn't just let herself fall
Speaker 2: for any guy. Right, she's got she has to be responsible,
Speaker 2: a responsible right, so she had to think for and
Speaker 2: for her kids. Right, she meets this guy and John Zorn.
Speaker 2: He's good with her kids. He's kind, he's always bringing
Speaker 2: them toys. He's very generous. Also, the couple they being
Speaker 2: in to start talking about their future. I mean stuff
Speaker 2: that you did she didn't expect. The forty year old's
Speaker 2: mother was like, I didn't think I was this was
Speaker 2: gonna happen, right. Unfortunately, John Zorn had a secret. His
Speaker 2: name wasn't really John Zorn, Elizabeth, it was Jeffrey Allen Manchester.
Speaker 2: And he did not have a top secret job with
Speaker 2: the government. He was unemployed because he was an escaped convict.
Speaker 2: He had no home that he could take Lee and
Speaker 2: her kids too, because he was unhoused, and technically he
Speaker 2: lived inside of a shuttered circuit city store.
Speaker 3: Stop what you're doing in closed circuit city.
Speaker 2: Yes, a closed, abandoned circuit city store. So when the
Speaker 2: Roofman was in prison in North Carolina, he'd heard from
Speaker 2: one of his fellow inmates, because you know, it's like
Speaker 2: a little educational center in there. So they tell him
Speaker 2: like yeah, man, you have criminal sentences for commercial burglary
Speaker 2: are not terribly draconian in Mecklenburg County. So that's why
Speaker 2: he picked Charlotte, Charlotte Mecklenburg, right, So that's why. At
Speaker 2: first he moves inside of a Toys r Us superstore.
Speaker 2: That's his first home. But it's it's open, it's a business.
Speaker 2: He's living in an opened.
Speaker 3: That is like every eight year old toys stream exactly.
Speaker 2: He finds a way to sneak inside the walls of
Speaker 2: the store right right behind like a bicycle display and
Speaker 2: the toys. Yeah, he digs into like the dry wall.
Speaker 2: He gets a little crack open, he digs into the wall.
Speaker 2: He makes himself a little spot. But then he starts
Speaker 2: like doing renovations boys in the wall and he makes
Speaker 2: himself a little secret Toys.
Speaker 3: R Us apartment out of legos.
Speaker 2: No, just like inside the drywall, in the segments in
Speaker 2: between the walls. He just makes himself a little place
Speaker 2: to live. He starts like digging around the wall and
Speaker 2: accidentally kicks through the wall and gets into the next
Speaker 2: door business, which is a circuit City, which has been closed,
Speaker 2: but the power is still on. So that's where he
Speaker 2: sets up a secret apartment that will not be disturbed
Speaker 2: by knows the employees, or because there's no employees, there's
Speaker 2: not a storry about, right, So Elizabeth, can you imagine
Speaker 2: living inside a Toys r Us? But not as an adult, like,
Speaker 2: let's imagine it is kids.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh dang, it's over.
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but do you remember holiday
Speaker 2: season the Toys r US catalog?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I got my sister and I it was this a
Speaker 2: storehouse of desires, circle stuff, tear up pages, lay them
Speaker 2: around the house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, better would around like what's this on the
Speaker 3: dining room table?
Speaker 2: Just happened to be there? Circled and pointed out?
Speaker 3: So crazy?
Speaker 2: Darren would love this? Did Santa put that there?
Speaker 3: Picking up?
Speaker 2: Like? Mom?
Speaker 3: Did you want me to see this? I was actually like.
Speaker 2: This exactly what I wanted in that color. So do
Speaker 2: you know the name of the giraffe mascot for Toys
Speaker 2: r Us?
Speaker 3: Jeffrey? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Why do I know that? Right?
Speaker 3: But isn't it like Geoffrey.
Speaker 2: With the g look at you double down?
Speaker 3: There's so much that I don't remember.
Speaker 2: And then the things you do the name of the
Speaker 2: mascot for a defunct toy.
Speaker 3: Company exactly, or like songs that come on.
Speaker 2: The hall the looks you're amazing with that.
Speaker 3: By the way, the roofman's name is Jeffrey.
Speaker 2: In their coverage, ever did this, They never compared to Yes,
Speaker 2: the whole It's the Toys r us Man, the Jeffy's
Speaker 2: he grew up as the It's the Toys r us
Speaker 2: Man anyway, jeff Manchester, as I told you, he's dating
Speaker 2: the single mother Lee Waynscott. He's playing at being a stepfather.
Speaker 2: He's a member of the local Presbyterian church. He's living
Speaker 2: inside a deserted circuit city. He's doing his shopping from
Speaker 2: the neighborhood Toys r us So. This tiny area that
Speaker 2: he called a home was the space beneath the stairwell
Speaker 2: right in the circuit city. He had a bed that
Speaker 2: he stole from Toys r us On his bed he
Speaker 2: had spider totally had like Spider Man sheets because he
Speaker 2: also stole from Toys r us On the walls of
Speaker 2: his secret apartment, he had posters of Spider Man and
Speaker 2: Superman movies. Oh yeah, put up posters a whole bit,
Speaker 2: you know, for evening entertainment. He'd wired up a DVD player,
Speaker 2: and he stole some DVDs from Toys r US. So
Speaker 2: he had like forty days and forty nights. He had
Speaker 2: match Stick men. Of course, he had Spider Man two,
Speaker 2: the Tobey Maguire one. Now for nutrition and nourishment, you
Speaker 2: may be wondering what's he doing to live on.
Speaker 3: I was totally I was thinking that.
Speaker 2: Baby food, jars of baby food that he stole from
Speaker 2: toys r us. They sell baby food and toys r US.
Speaker 2: So he lived off of strain peas and oh my god,
Speaker 2: just all diarrhea.
Speaker 3: That's all.
Speaker 2: Paste at this point. So he was super attracted the
Speaker 2: lad Oh god. Yeah. They also he wired up a
Speaker 2: smoked a fire. He had a fire extinguisher and a
Speaker 2: smoke detector as an early warning detection system. There's like
Speaker 2: a motion detector. He also, yeah, he wouldn't we wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised by workmen or inspectors.
Speaker 3: He had to totally like rig it up. Otherwise it's
Speaker 3: like you're only early detecting a fire exactly.
Speaker 2: So, by the way, think about this, he's been in prison,
Speaker 2: right he escapes. He had a four foot by eight
Speaker 2: foot sell in prison. Now he has a four foot
Speaker 2: by ten foot secret apartment in Circuit City.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he has the whole place place.
Speaker 2: Exactly, cleaned down, empty, there's like.
Speaker 3: Stains on it, thousands of square feet.
Speaker 2: But he spotted inside because.
Speaker 3: He probably had like small quarters in the.
Speaker 2: Builds, a prison of his own design. It's like it's
Speaker 2: like a little piece of heaven for someone living on
Speaker 2: the land. I guess. Anyway, beyond the DVDs, he falls
Speaker 2: asleep too. And the baby food eats for breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 2: and dinner. What else did the roof man do all
Speaker 2: day and all night inside Circuit City? And toys are Well,
Speaker 2: there's a bit answer that. I'd like you to close
Speaker 2: your eyes and take a break, okay, and when we
Speaker 2: get back, I will tell you what it's like inside
Speaker 2: Toys or US when you have it as you take
Speaker 2: your apartment.
Speaker 4: Yay, Elizabeth, how were those ads?
Speaker 2: Huh?
Speaker 3: I don't know. My eyes were closed.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, well they were good. I'll just tell you
Speaker 2: that now if.
Speaker 3: You want to get here with my eyes c to
Speaker 3: know what was.
Speaker 2: Going on and say, you like a Circuit City that's shuttered, yeah,
Speaker 2: and next door to a Toys r US that's open,
Speaker 2: and you live in both.
Speaker 3: Of those m and I got the squirts.
Speaker 2: Boy, if I got a treat for you, yeah, because
Speaker 2: I'd like you to close your eyes and i'd like
Speaker 2: you to pictures. It's a quiet night at the Circuit City, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: The lights are low, but there's music playing from a
Speaker 2: DVD player. It's the soundtrack for the movie Smoking in
Speaker 2: the Bandit and you, Elizabeth, are Jeffrey Manchester's imaginary friend
Speaker 2: Regina Corntower. At the moment, you are driving in a
Speaker 2: race against Jeff, He's piloting a Barbie dream car. You
Speaker 2: are driving the right along Barbie pink cheek and you
Speaker 2: are losing. You're racing around in the aisles and the
Speaker 2: battery powered car engine wines as you punch it. The
Speaker 2: car tires slide across the Linolean tile floor. You think
Speaker 2: you can overtake the lead, maybe beat Jeff, because of
Speaker 2: course you do, since you're an imaginary friend. And that's
Speaker 2: what Jeff Manchester wants you to think. But also he
Speaker 2: has a plan. When you pulled even with him, hoping
Speaker 2: to pass, he lets you take the outside and then
Speaker 2: he puts you in the wall hole. No, just like
Speaker 2: Tom Cruise and days of thunder a Jerry Bruckheimer production.
Speaker 2: The Barbie Jeeks slams into the shelves, the toys fall
Speaker 2: off and hits you in your imaginary head. Jeff Manchester
Speaker 2: laughs and continues to race on around the empty toys
Speaker 2: r us late at night. I'll bite himself. He's won again.
Speaker 2: He always wins.
Speaker 3: He wins again.
Speaker 2: So I've even messing around and living the best life
Speaker 2: an eleven year old in a Hollywood movie about a
Speaker 2: kid who calls a shuddered toy store at his home.
Speaker 2: What else was Jeff Manchester doing? Elizabeth?
Speaker 3: Am I still picturing it?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: They were picturing it. What do you think?
Speaker 3: I just think that every time he sat down it
Speaker 3: was a squeeshiesun.
Speaker 2: Gotta bring it back?
Speaker 1: I could.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 2: Luckily they toys are us. They sell diapers, He's goods
Speaker 2: and they have they got wipes. They have a product
Speaker 2: called Boudreau's butt paste, so he's should be covered. That's
Speaker 2: her babies who have issues with anyway, Elizabeth back to
Speaker 2: Lee Waynscott, his girlfriend many partners. She wanted to go out.
Speaker 2: She wanted to go out for a nice dinner and
Speaker 2: not eat babyfood. She wanted to go out and see
Speaker 2: a show, maybe a play. Something he wanted to do
Speaker 2: a couple's due. But John Zorn, her boyfriend and his
Speaker 2: top secret government job, couldn't give her those things.
Speaker 3: You didn't even like go dutch on a bill.
Speaker 2: No, no, not at all. He's got no cash. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's not really real, because what was real was that
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Manchester needed to figure out a way to get
Speaker 2: some cash in his life, right, not Spiderman DVD. So
Speaker 2: he starts to plan his next great robbery. Instead of
Speaker 2: going back to his old mo, he had a new idea.
Speaker 2: He would rob the toys r US.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm wondering why that hasn't happened yet, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: but this would require some surveillance, right, So he installed
Speaker 3: a series of baby monitors around the store.
Speaker 2: He used those to spy on the goings on of
Speaker 2: the employees management. He's like McCauley, Kulkan is robbing toys
Speaker 2: r using.
Speaker 3: That anyway because it's so boring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. You would not be able to last two
Speaker 2: days at this. But not only this, he also starts
Speaker 2: to change the employee's schedules because he wants to create
Speaker 2: a weak moment without any managers on the floor, and
Speaker 2: that's when he'll rob the Toys r Us. Really, so
Speaker 2: he'd take his girlfriend out for a real date. So,
Speaker 2: just like the McDonald's, the Toys r Us also followed regular,
Speaker 2: predictable corporate practices that made it far easier target for
Speaker 2: him to burgle. But unlike McDonald's, he was essentially living
Speaker 2: inside the Toys r Us and so thus he was
Speaker 2: living behind. He's leaving behind all this evidence of his presence, right,
Speaker 2: so it didn't take long for employees to notice Smith,
Speaker 2: the missing merchandise, the baby boot bottles everywhere. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: smell suspicions start to grow. People are getting tired of
Speaker 2: blaming Greg, so casual investigations get launched. If he was
Speaker 2: going to rob from the Toys r Us, his window
Speaker 2: is closing fast and he gets that. Right. Meanwhile, he's
Speaker 2: attending Bible study class every Wednesday. He's going over to
Speaker 2: his girlfriend's place. He'd ocay robin McDonald's and then take
Speaker 2: Lee out to a nice restaurant one he could afford,
Speaker 2: like Red Lobster. Yeah, he's like Beyonce, you know, if
Speaker 2: you're good, you're gonna take you out to Red Lobster.
Speaker 3: I bet you that when he went to Bible study,
Speaker 3: he just like loaded up on all the snacks. On
Speaker 3: Wednesday night, they're just like he does like early morning
Speaker 3: stuff to get them arms nice.
Speaker 2: Get some protein. So other nights, sometimes a couple they
Speaker 2: would stay in watch movies because the guy had quite
Speaker 2: a DVD collection. I'm telling you, buzz. He remained generous,
Speaker 2: remember exactly double trouble. Anyway, he's bringing over toys for
Speaker 2: the girlfriend's kids. Oh sure, every time he comes over
Speaker 2: brand new, big ticket toys. The rest. He's also donating
Speaker 2: to the church that she's like, he's so generous. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so John Zorn even though also he gave the church
Speaker 2: pastor the first two seasons of Seinfeld on DVD. So
Speaker 2: the church pastor is like, and I quote, he's very engaging,
Speaker 2: down to earth, nice felt lips. Oh yeah. So around
Speaker 2: the same time he goes to a dentist have some
Speaker 2: work done, right, he's got a tooth pain. So also
Speaker 2: at the same time he's got a gym membership. She
Speaker 2: started to lay down some other roots. He creates a
Speaker 2: little life for himself. And he didn't know it then,
Speaker 2: but this would be the mistake that he's making. He
Speaker 2: cannot have a life for himself. As John Zorn anyway,
Speaker 2: one Charlotte police captain much later noted, if you draw
Speaker 2: a donut around that circuit city, I bet he talked
Speaker 2: to everyone within a mile. Yeah. So he's out there
Speaker 2: now trying to do he got a life. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's just out there, like, hey, how you guys doing.
Speaker 3: How's he paying for his gym membership?
Speaker 2: He goes and robs and McDonald's and then he's got
Speaker 2: a couple hundred bucks. He's not much. It's not paying rent,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't have car insurance. I got him once again.
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe a cash anyway. The holidays approach Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Now he's set for the kids obviously, so he can
Speaker 2: always steal, you know, some something. Maybe he can't steal
Speaker 2: a toy for Lee. So he's like, what am I
Speaker 2: going to do for her? But for her he wanted
Speaker 2: to get something special, right, He's like, I should show
Speaker 2: her that we're going to start a life together. He's like, okay,
Speaker 2: I need to rob the toys, r ust, I need
Speaker 2: to get serious. So December twenty sixth, the day after
Speaker 2: Christmas aka Boxing Day in Canada, roof Man it's time
Speaker 2: to bring back the skills. Oh man, He decides the
Speaker 2: time to rob the toys or ust. But he's not
Speaker 2: coming through the roof. He's coming through the walls. So
Speaker 2: he knew holiday shopping it's done. Now. It's the twenty
Speaker 2: six right, the store should be flush with cash, the
Speaker 2: most it'll have the entire year. And it's not yet
Speaker 2: deposited in the bank.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because banks close on the twenty fifth.
Speaker 2: So he walks right through the wall into the giant
Speaker 2: toy store. He's got a gun in one hand, and
Speaker 2: then he'd stolen from a pawn shop. He tells the
Speaker 2: stunned employee.
Speaker 3: He's steal a gun from a pawnshop.
Speaker 2: Through the roof. Oh yeah, that's just my shot.
Speaker 3: That's just like I imagine him standing at the counter,
Speaker 3: all yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't think the place was open.
Speaker 3: I don't think.
Speaker 2: So he walks in. He's got his pawn shop gun,
Speaker 2: he's got his like mask on. He's like roofman, back
Speaker 2: baby back in the game, don't Carolina. So he tells
Speaker 2: the stunted employees that he's there to rob the store.
Speaker 3: Take your shirt off, spin it around.
Speaker 2: Your head like a helicopter, Raise up now he was
Speaker 2: very kind and thoughtful, as always right, and he tells
Speaker 2: him like, I'm just here to grab the cash. I
Speaker 2: don't want to hurt anybody. Pair of employees, they're like
Speaker 2: this North Carolina. I don't believe you. They run for
Speaker 2: the door. So they managed to escape and they go
Speaker 2: and they call the.
Speaker 3: Cops like a beautiful man is robbing.
Speaker 2: So the police they show up. They're quick on the scene.
Speaker 2: Roofman has not had time to leave. He hears the
Speaker 2: police arrive, He's able to flee without getting caught. However,
Speaker 2: he now no longer has a home. He has the
Speaker 2: cash to take his girlfriend out because he stole that,
Speaker 2: but he has no home. What's next for the roofman?
Speaker 2: Does he say we should get married and move to Mexico. Well,
Speaker 2: when the police arrived to investigate the toys, r us
Speaker 2: burglary police dogs get called in. The dog sniff and
Speaker 2: sniff and doesn't take them long to find something because
Speaker 2: he's stinky at this point. But anyway, he'd left a
Speaker 2: cash of toys that the roofman had secreted away in
Speaker 2: the ceiling tiles. Oh how the dogs sniff that, I
Speaker 2: do not know, but they're onto something. Now the Charlotte
Speaker 2: Mecklenberg cops, they continue to investigate. They remembered there was
Speaker 2: a report of how they responded to a burglar alarm,
Speaker 2: and the cops had previously investigated the abandoned Circuit City.
Speaker 2: One cop even tested like a piece of loose dry
Speaker 2: wall while they were searching. They had never discovered the
Speaker 2: roofman's hidden apartment. So now they return they investigate again.
Speaker 2: They go looking around in the Circuit City, this time Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: They also found nothing.
Speaker 3: They didn't find the apartment.
Speaker 2: Later on, one cop this dude named Fred Allen, which
Speaker 2: to me is like the old radio comedian. I'm like,
Speaker 2: that's wild. Anyway, So he's patrolling the parking lot of
Speaker 2: the Circuit City. He spies something strange and I say
Speaker 2: something strange, like only you would have noticed this. He's
Speaker 2: looking at the wall of the store, like the one
Speaker 2: of the back walls, and there's lights on, right, all
Speaker 2: these lights are lighting up the wall. But because the
Speaker 2: power still on this in the business in the store,
Speaker 2: one spot on the back wall is totally dark and
Speaker 2: he's like, well, that's odd, and he goes over to
Speaker 2: take a look at it and he sees there's like
Speaker 2: it's been painted. There's this hidden door painted to match
Speaker 2: the wall. He opens the door and he finds a
Speaker 2: secret room. It's the hidden apartment of Jeffrey Manchester. He
Speaker 2: just walks right in. Jeffrey Manchester was not there. He
Speaker 2: happened to be out of here. I guess he was
Speaker 2: up with Lee and the kids. Yeah, maybe it's Wednesday,
Speaker 2: he's at Bible class. Anyway, cops get called in, they investigate,
Speaker 2: They fingerprint everything. On one DVD. They find a fingerprint
Speaker 2: the dvd Elizabeth, catch me if you can stop it.
Speaker 2: Sear to god, that's a great detail. Like put that
Speaker 2: in the movie, right, the house sublime? Right. Anyway, the
Speaker 2: cops now they have their suspect. They fingerprint, they identify them,
Speaker 2: They put out an APB. They turn to local media.
Speaker 2: They release a mugshot of the suspect. It goes on
Speaker 2: the nightly news the next morning. Jeffrey Manchester. He goes
Speaker 2: back to that dentist office where he had the work done,
Speaker 2: and you know he has gotten they got medical records inside. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that would you know, connect him. So he burns the
Speaker 2: place down. He burns down the dentist's office. Does go
Speaker 2: on to Steel's records and then go and steal like
Speaker 2: a bunch of records. He just burns the office down. Fortunately,
Speaker 2: though that was too late for that kind of severe
Speaker 2: drastic actions, because several churchgoers have to be watching the
Speaker 2: news the night before. They all recognized the mug shot.
Speaker 2: They're good church people. They call up the cops. They're like,
Speaker 2: that's John Zorn. He goes to my church and they
Speaker 2: tell the cops he's friendly with Lee Waynscott.
Speaker 3: And so a lot of toys exactly real generous.
Speaker 2: So detective goes out to speak with Lee. It was
Speaker 2: just after New Year's at this point to January Fitch,
Speaker 2: January sixth. The detective walks up to Lee and asked,
Speaker 2: do you know this man? Like? How T two is that?
Speaker 2: But the terminator too? Is not? Really what was happening, no, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: It was a detective holding up a photograph of Jeff Manchester.
Speaker 2: Lee looked at the photo, then back at detective, then
Speaker 2: back at the photo side, looked back at the detective
Speaker 2: and said, that's John. The detective told her his name
Speaker 2: was not John Zorn, he was Jeff Manchester and he
Speaker 2: was an escaped convict. As far as the cops could
Speaker 2: tell he'd been living inside of a Circuit City store
Speaker 2: doing all his grocery shopping at the Toys r Us,
Speaker 2: and the detective asked if she knew where John, or
Speaker 2: rather Jeff might be. Lee said she didn't know where
Speaker 2: he was. She wasn't protecting for him. She literally did
Speaker 2: not know, but she told the cops he would probably
Speaker 2: call her soon. The cops say, well, would you would
Speaker 2: you be willing to help us contact him or maybe
Speaker 2: set up a trap. She's like, yeah, I will help
Speaker 2: you set up a meeting with John Zorn aka Jeff Manchester.
Speaker 2: But also, by the way, Lee, she's shocked and sat
Speaker 2: into her Cory. You called it right. I mean, we
Speaker 2: got to feel sorry for She thought she met a
Speaker 2: good guy at church. He's great with the kids, great
Speaker 2: with the community. Turns out to be he lives in
Speaker 2: the Toys r Us with her city, and he's he's
Speaker 2: the roof man.
Speaker 3: Imagine. I'm just thinking about like she's sitting in therapy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so it didn't work out.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you what, John Zorn does he have
Speaker 2: any friends.
Speaker 3: And they are welcome to club jaded. He's never going
Speaker 3: to trust anyone again.
Speaker 2: I can't introduce you to any of his friends because
Speaker 2: he's not a real person. Oh my god, so she
Speaker 2: as I said, She agrees for the cops to help
Speaker 2: catch her boyfriend. Days later, she calls a detective and
Speaker 2: tells him that she's invited John Zorn over for her
Speaker 2: fortieth birthday party.
Speaker 3: Oh, happy birthday.
Speaker 2: She's gonna have a party. And so they're like, what
Speaker 2: if we're the guests? So she's like, okay, So she
Speaker 2: invites Jeff over to her party with the cops. The scene,
Speaker 2: though it's joyous, it's festive. The cops are doing their
Speaker 2: best to give her a happy fortieth. Secretly, Lee is
Speaker 2: dying on the inside, right, So she's faming a smile
Speaker 2: when John, or rather Jeff, arrives at her birthday party and.
Speaker 3: Kind of turn it around. I would be like, this
Speaker 3: is the greatest da because I'm gonna just nail this exactly.
Speaker 3: I am going to ruin myself and justice. It would
Speaker 3: be the best party.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you can't spell justice without ice ice cold.
Speaker 2: Now there's no parties, I told you, Elizabeth, just a
Speaker 2: bunch of cops pretending they're holding solo cups or whatever.
Speaker 2: And so her kids are out of the house because
Speaker 2: in case there's a bad scene. So the roof man arrives.
Speaker 2: He's got a bouquet of flowers for his girlfriend. He
Speaker 2: strolls into Lee's place, Happy fortieth baby.
Speaker 3: Oh god.
Speaker 2: He finds that she's alone except for these cops. SOPs.
Speaker 2: They swarm him. They arrest him immediately. The Charlotte Police
Speaker 2: sergeant Catherine Scheimerife or shim Reef said, after the bus
Speaker 2: and about the bus, the Roofmand's biggest mistake was quote
Speaker 2: going back for the girl one last time. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: so Elizabeth, he broke the thirty second rule from Heat, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, is your new second favorite bank robbery movie. Okay,
Speaker 2: so in that movie, Robert de Niro says, don't let
Speaker 2: yourself get attached to anything you were not willing to
Speaker 2: walk out in thirty seconds flat if you feel the
Speaker 2: heat around the corner. Now, dude broke the heat dictate.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to call this, right over the
Speaker 2: heat dictate the thirty second rule. He broke it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: now he gets busted. The cops let roofman phone his
Speaker 2: girlfriendly and she says he was apologetic. They told reporters
Speaker 2: at the time he was very sad and humbled and
Speaker 2: felt terrible that he had to deceive us. He encouraged
Speaker 2: me and told me to be strong and to do
Speaker 2: the things we talked about doing. He wasn't upset and
Speaker 2: get this, Elizabeth, she forgave him.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: Good Christian Southern woman, I'm telling you right, heart filled.
Speaker 3: With you know what? More power to her said vengeance
Speaker 3: would be mine.
Speaker 2: She said, I don't hate them. I'm disappointed and confused.
Speaker 2: I don't know whether to smack them or hug them. No,
Speaker 2: I say throw out in the trash, but please custdy
Speaker 2: Jeff Manchester. He also phoned his mother. He calls up.
Speaker 2: He's like, Mom, I kind of lost focus direct flow, Mama,
Speaker 2: I kind of lost focus. She added, he doesn't seem
Speaker 2: super embarrassed about the notoriety. I know I would be.
Speaker 2: That's my mother, that's her response. Would Yeah, he should
Speaker 2: be embarrassed, embarrassed, me, embarrassed the family. I would have
Speaker 2: died of embarrassment at a good nature if I was him.
Speaker 3: You gotta just don't talk to the press.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 2: She also said her son seemed like a character out
Speaker 2: of a movie. That's his mother, I can't imagine this
Speaker 2: is something you would see in the movies. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 2: we always compare our lives to the movies, which we
Speaker 2: are losing. So what do you think we're gonna use
Speaker 2: to make sense of our lives when movies are gone? Like,
Speaker 2: this is like something you'd see in a video game.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have the same pinas on the ticker, right,
Speaker 2: this seems like something you've seen in his streaming series.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't anyway. Back to Charlotte Police Sergeant Catherine
Speaker 2: scheim Reef, she said, you hate to compliment the guy
Speaker 2: because he's a dirt bag, but we can we can
Speaker 2: learn a lot from him. So even she's a victim
Speaker 2: to it is happening. And she's partly right because since
Speaker 2: he was certainly worthy of a compliment from cops apparently,
Speaker 2: but being that I'm not a cop, I'll just say it.
Speaker 2: He was wildly good at what he did, and he
Speaker 2: wasn't done trying. So February two thousand and nine and
Speaker 2: October twenty seventeen he tried to escape from prison. Oh god,
Speaker 2: yoh yeah. Now both attempts failed. At the moment, he's
Speaker 2: still in prison. He's at Central Prison, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Speaker 2: And now he's scheduled for release in twenty thirty six.
Speaker 2: Ladies take note, So at that time he will be
Speaker 2: sixty five years old. It's kind of wild that he's
Speaker 2: living in a North Carolina prison as opposed to California,
Speaker 2: because he was sent there for a short deployment. He
Speaker 2: gets busted, gets caught, and he spent half of his
Speaker 2: life in a North Carolina prison. Yeah. Anyway, and oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, we can now look forward to a
Speaker 2: movie about his exploit because Channing Tatum has signed on
Speaker 2: to star in the film of his story. The title
Speaker 2: roof Man, Magic Roofman, Roofman.
Speaker 3: That's a good Where did they get that time?
Speaker 2: I know? Fun Fact Toys r Us went bankrupt in
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen. Fun Right. All the stores closed. It was
Speaker 2: the end of an era that was I hated it, right,
Speaker 2: but it was the result of greedy, unscrupulous investors who
Speaker 2: loaded the company up with debt and then tanked its
Speaker 2: future and then sold off the parts for profit. Now
Speaker 2: they basically loaded the store the stores because they all closed,
Speaker 2: yet none of them will go to prison. Instead, they're
Speaker 2: celebrated as smart, rational economic actors. Right, taking advantage of
Speaker 2: market dynamics or whatever. Yeah, personally, I prefer my thieves
Speaker 2: like Jeffrey Manchester.
Speaker 3: That's what I say.
Speaker 2: Now. I bet Lee Waynscott would have a different opinion,
Speaker 2: But I'm just saying as an outsider, you.
Speaker 3: Know, in terms of like maybe a person here there
Speaker 3: lost their job because of Roofman. Sure, yeah, but like
Speaker 3: that it was venture capitalists, Pretrick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. I believe it was capital I believe.
Speaker 3: Was Romney wiped everybody out. Yes, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: All the stories. Everyone loves their job, but none of
Speaker 2: them that's not like a bad thing. This guy going
Speaker 2: in and stealing some baby food.
Speaker 3: Clever anyway, I prefer him, I agree.
Speaker 2: So what's a ridiculous takeaway or Elizabeth?
Speaker 3: Oh, my ridiculous takeaway is there's no need for brand loyalty?
Speaker 3: I like, what about you?
Speaker 2: Look at you. My ridiculous takeaway is is this a mashup?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go, so pritzy you got a talkback
Speaker 2: for us? Sure do you? Oh my god?
Speaker 3: I went.
Speaker 6: Hey, Elizabeth and Zarin. One of the things I wanted
Speaker 6: to ask about was if you knew about this skit
Speaker 6: from Sentient live That was done back in the eighties
Speaker 6: and it ties in with all the episodes to end
Speaker 6: up with the cons writing books. So if you go
Speaker 6: to YouTube and search for Pros and cons SNL and
Speaker 6: that's p R O s E, you will see a
Speaker 6: short film supposedly written by Norman Mailer about the next
Speaker 6: great wave of Piliser winning writers and poets coming from
Speaker 6: the American prison system. Anyway, I love the show.
Speaker 2: Oh well, my god, I love this.
Speaker 3: I have to go.
Speaker 2: Look, I'm gonna stop this show right now to go. Look,
Speaker 2: can you just stop it? Hand me my phone? Well,
Speaker 2: how's always? How you find us online? Ridiculous Crime on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 2: have the website ridiculous Crime dot com and we obviously
Speaker 2: love your talkbacks. That one was excellent. Yeah, email us
Speaker 2: if you like a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com
Speaker 2: and hit us up on the iheartapp if you would like,
Speaker 2: you can download it and possibly hear your voice on
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: As always, thanks for listening. We will catch you next crime.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by our resident toys r ust Man
Speaker 2: Dave Houston. Research is by ruthe Person Marissa Brown and
Speaker 2: Wall Lady Andrea Song Sharpen Too. Our theme song is
Speaker 2: by Circuit Curity employees of the Month Thomas Lee and
Speaker 2: Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Bidany five hundred.
Speaker 2: Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre. Executive
Speaker 2: producers are McDonald's Rooftops, Secret Shoppers, Ben Bollen and Noel Brown.
Speaker 3: Why Say It One More Time? Geeks Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.
Speaker 1: My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
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