Story Archive

Caught Iridescent-Handed

At least nine students at New Smyrna Beach (Fla.) High School complained that money was disappearing from their lockers during gym class — on the order of $1,000. It just wouldn’t do to put security cameras in a locker room, so a student worked with a school resource officer to put a “bait” wallet in a locker with $141 cash in it — sprinkled with luminescent powder from an “ultraviolet detection kit” to coat the hands of the culprit. They dubbed it “Operation Sticky Fingers” and waited. Sure enough, after a few days the bait money went missing, and phase 2 went into operation: sheriff’s deputies shined a black light on the hands of all the students that had access to the locker room that day to see who got the powder on their hands. Every student came up clean. Deputies then checked the hands of faculty, and sure enough, PE teacher and football coach Rodney Barnes, 43, came up positive for the powder. He admitted to at least some of the thefts, and was booked for burglary and grand theft. After Barnes bailed out of jail, he resigned from the school. (RC/Orlando Sentinel, WFTV Orlando) ...Not surprising: a teacher desperate for money. Even less surprising: students have more spare cash than their teachers.