A 35-year-old gentleman in Virginia broke into a used car dealership, and when he didn’t see what he wanted, tunneled his way into another car dealership next door. (See his handiwork in video below, posted by WUSA9.)
And after crawling through the adjoining walls from one dealership to another, he grabbed a set of car keys, along with a company hat and pen. But before he could take off with his new vehicle and swag, an alarm gave him away.
And unfortunately for him, the police who showed up didn’t buy his story that he had been hired to do some drywalling.
In fact, after arresting him, police now jokingly refer to the case as the Shawshank Burglary. Of course, this is a nod to the prison-escape film Shawshank Redemption (based on a Stephen King novella) in which protagonist Andy Dufresne dug a tunnel and posed as a professional to free himself from Shawshank State Penitentiary.
From Stafford County Sheriff’s Office:
When deputies arrived, they observed signs of a break in not only at Auto Chiefs, but the business next door, Carplug. On scene was a man identified as Jerrylee Adams.
Adams advised he was an employee of Auto Chiefs there to do some drywall work before going next door to buy a vehicle. Both businesses were contacted and neither had any knowledge of Adams. Adams was detained and deputies were able to uncover something similar to a scene from the Shawshank Redemption.
It was discovered Adams attempted to break into Auto Chiefs using a crowbar on the front door. When Plan A failed, he resorted to Plan B and broke in using a broken garage panel. When he gained access to the business, he tunneled through the wall into the adjacent business, Carplug. While there, he stole keys to a vehicle, a company hat, and a company pen Adams advised he was going to use in order to write a note to the business that he was taking the vehicle for a “test drive.” On his way to retrieve the vehicle, deputies made contact with him with all the stolen items still on his person.
Unlike Andy Dunfresne, Adam would not be able to escape this. He was charged with two counts of statutory burglary, attempted grand larceny, larceny, possession of burglary tools, and two counts of destruction of property. After a contentious hearing with the magistrate, he was held at Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond.
