Debriefed

Up until the time of his arrest, had you asked 24-year-old Garth Flaherty, “Hey, Garth, what are you eating under there?” would he have been a good sport and answered, “Under where?” Or would he have become strangely evasive? Who can really say now that Garth’s self-described “problem” is a matter of public record?

After being spotted snatching lingerie out of the machines in two Pullman, Washington, apartment building laundry rooms, Flaherty’s strange crime spree came to an end with police seizing 93 pounds of misbegotten lingerie from his home. Bras, panties—every manner of unmentionable was represented in the five-garbage-bag, 1,500-piece collection.

“He said he had a problem,” reported Pullman Police Commander Chris Tennant. Perhaps not as big a problem, though, as the police have now that they’ve caught him.

“We’re kind of concerned with how to match up bras and panties with victims,” Tennant said. And what to do with all the evidence after Flaherty’s case is heard isn’t a clear decision either. “Would you really want them back?” Tennant asked.

With only 12 reported area panty-thefts on record, Flaherty faces 12 counts of second-degree burglary and one first-degree theft.

by Scott Saxon