Crime plugs

As far as being a thief goes, Keith Wells can use some work. However, he may have found his calling as a marketing consultant. Those he crossed paths with following his heist didn’t hesitate to plug their business while describing their encounter with him.

Wells is charged with robbing a Minneapolis, Minnesota, bank at gunpoint. Cash in hand, Wells didn’t speed off. Instead, he strolled casually down the street to a liquor store and asked for a bottle of their cheapest vodka. Then he popped in to a sandwich shop, where eyewitness and restaurant general manager Tom Tollefson recalled Wells having ordered the Skinny Longhorn. “That’s a roast beef on a tortilla,” Tollefson told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. According to waiter Justin Thorvilson, Wells said, “Wow! What’d you use to make this sandwich? It’s delicious!”

Wells then crossed the street and caught an eastbound bus, prompting Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons to say, “We’ve got this campaign, ‘So Easy Everybody Wants to Ride.’ We’ve got posters in the bus that show firemen, carrying ladders, riding the bus. We’ve got an organ delivery guy. We’ve got a FedEx guy... But we hadn’t thought of a bank robber.”

With pictures from the bank surveillance cameras released to the public, the less business savvy soon helped police find their criminal.

by Scott Saxon