Five-Pound Bag Of Gummy Bears Leads To Arrest Of Serial Burglar

Gummy Bears, Bowl, Candy, Table
Photo credit (Photo by Getty Images)

The Midwest Coast Brewing Company in Chicago have been dealing with a serial burglar.

They have been hit three times, on February 28th, March 3rd, and March 1st, with each burlgary occuring around 1:30 in the morning.  The burglar used the same entrance, smashing the same window each time to get him.  The burglars took cash, tools, pallets, and food from the kitchen, though the wife of the owner made an offhand comment about another item that was stolen.

Owner and head brewer Cameron Compton explained to The Times of Northwest Indiana that a bag of gummy bears was stolen in the first burglary, but was not registered as evidence until the third.  He said, "The gummy bears were stolen in the first burglary.  With all of the other things taken of high value, the candy was an after-thought. But then my wife made an off-handed comment, sort of joking, saying, ‘They even took our gummy bears.’  Then the officer said, ‘Wait, gummy bears? You’re joking.’ He left and came back with a bag of gummy bears asking if these were the ones stolen."

And yes, it was this bad of gummy bears that led police to eventually solve the crimes.  The officers told Comptopn that they had arrested a man a couple weeks earlier for breaking into an unrelated business near the brewery.  That suspect happened to have a bag of msostly eaten gummy bears with him.

Compton was informed later in the evening that an arrest had been made, and Terrence Cole, 55, of Chicago, was charged with burglary and taken into custody.

Compton said of the incident, "Among other things, it was kind of the gummy bears that made the connection.  I spoke with the detectives, who said they refer to the case as the ‘gummy bear caper’ in their precinct. If my wife hadn’t mentioned it, I don’t know if they would have made that connection."

Via The Times of Northwest Indiana