This is one of those crime stories that make your jaw drop at the audacity. Jeffrey Allen Manchester, AKA “Roofman,” AKA “Rooftop Robber,” made his name by cutting down through the roofs of McDonalds restaurants, hitting “over 40 stores in nine different states” from 1998-2000. He usually hit his restaurants right before they opened or after they closed. “Everyone noted he was exceptionally polite.” He was finally caught May 20, 2000, after robbing a McDonalds in Belmont, North Carolina, after having hit another McDonalds 10 mile away just a few hours before. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
And that’s when the story gets weird.
Some highlights:
On June 15, 2004, after four years as a model prisoner, he used his job in the metal shop to fabricate a panel to lay under the rails of the truck that picked up finished metal goods from the ship, letting him escape Brown Creek Correctional in Polkton, North Carolina.
Though he had family in California, he only went as far as Charlotte.
There, he managed to carve out a living space inside a Toys “R” Us store behind a bike rack.
He subsisted on baby food from the store. Honestly, I’m not seeing this setup as much preferable to prison.
He kept tabs on store personnel using baby monitors.
He tunneled into the abandoned Circuit City next door at set up a larger hidden space there, with Spiderman posters on the wall and a DVD player. He even slept on Spiderman sheets.
During this time he got bolder, and started eating at a nearby Red Lobster. (Don’t know how he got the money; maybe fenced merchandise from the store?)
He joined a local Presbyterian church and started dating a woman in the congregation. Not exactly “keep a low profile” behavior.
Naturally, he always spent time at her place. His excuse? “He had a government job that he couldn’t tell anyone about and that his accommodations were in a sterile and uncomfortable office-type building.”
He finally held up the Toys “R” Us the day after Christmas, but two employees managed to slip away and alert police.
“Things went even further sideways when an off-duty sheriff’s deputy arrived at the scene, Manchester responded by punching her, stealing her gun and running away.”
Police finally caught him by luring him to his girlfriend’s place for supposed party.
I’m surprised they haven’t already made a movie about him…