DISCLAIMER:The following story is not true. I originally posted this on April 1st, 2011 as an April Fools' Day joke.
This post started attracting a lot of attention in February, 2012. I believe someone posted this story on a popular Facebook page, and then it was shared many times. As a result, this blog post received several thousand hits.
Apparently someone at WUSA Channel 9 came across this post, and they contacted the Prince George's County Police Department and the Bowie Police Department for confirmation. The story raised some eyebrows at the PGPD. From what I understand, the Prince George's County Police were
concerned about the use of the image of one of their vehicles, and how
that image ended up in this story. Although this picture is innocent
enough, you can imagine that the department doesn't want their vehicles
showing up in adult films and the like, and they would like to have some
control over how their vehicles are used.
I first got wind that all of this was going on when Bowie Police Chief John Nesky contacted me. Chief Nesky wanted to give me a friendly "heads-up" that some questions were being asked and some concerns were being raised.
For the record, the boy in the picture is my son, and the police car was parked at a local community event in Bowie. I snapped the picture as we were leaving, and the officer assigned to the patrol car wasn't present when I took the picture.
Chief Nesky passed along my contact info to the Prince George's County Police. I haven't heard anything yet from the PGPD.
Enjoy...
...
A joint investigation between the Bowie and Prince George's County police departments into a rash of recent burglaries resulted in the apprehension of the youngest suspect ever to be arrested in the county. A three year-old boy was detained by police on Thursday after detectives working a stakeout in Bowie's Whitehall section observed the preschooler exiting a house through a "doggy door" with stolen goods.
"When the detectives brought this kid back to the station, I was like, you've got to be kidding!" said recently appointed Bowie Police Chief John Nesky. "I thought these guys were pulling a prank, but after viewing the surveillance video, I realized that this was no joke. Law enforcement has seen a trend in recent years where younger and younger people are being arrested for burglaries and even armed robberies, but this one goes beyond the beyonds."
Once the suspect was in custody, it didn't take investigators long to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The boy would sneak out of his house each afternoon after his elderly babysitter fell asleep during nap time. "I play
Swiper the Fox," the boy told detectives - an apparent reference to a sneaky thief on the Nickelodeon cable television show
Dora the Explorer. Police recovered jewelry, watches and a large stash of candy in the boy's bedroom closet.
According to a spokesperson for the Prince George's County State's Attorney's office, the boy has been released to the custody of his parents, and no charges will be filed. "Police officers had a talk with the boy," the official said, "and they gave him a stern message: no swiping."
