Story Archive

Stick ’Em Up

Keithan Manuel, 18, walked into the Wilmer, Texas, Police Department with a white towel covering his hands. Police Chief Victor Kemp said Manuel “walked into the lobby and approached the dispatch window there, and told our Communications Officer ‘give me all your money’.” He pointed the dispatcher to his towel-covered hand, then told the woman he was really there to check on a warrant. “He gave a different name and after a few moments of maybe playing it off he said ‘you do know I have a gun’. At that point he seemed to be very serious,” Kemp said. The dispatcher called for backup, and Manuel was taken down at gunpoint. “I swear to God I didn’t say nothing like that; that’s why they didn’t find no guns on me,” Manuel said afterward. “Man I play like that all the time, I didn’t think she would take it seriously.” He was arrested on several charges, including robbery. “You hear of those World’s Dumbest Criminals every once in a while,” Kemp said, “but you never think it’s gonna happen in your city.” (MS/KTVT Dallas) ...The excuse that he didn’t say anything like that, and didn’t think she’d take it seriously, didn’t work for him in second grade, either.