Story Archive

Strike!

An employee of a bowling alley in Decatur, Ill., said she had been robbed. Police responded in force, with eight officers, but the robber had left before their arrival, she said. Jamie L. Gordon, 30, said “she had been struck in the head with a bowling ball and all of the money, $2,100, had been stolen out of the safe,” the resulting police report notes. She was knocked unconscious and therefore couldn’t describe the robber. Officers quickly noticed a security camera covering the safe, and asked the manager to pull up the recording. After watching that, the lead investigator says, he told Gordon that he “just watched her strike herself in the head with a bowling ball twice on video,” and asked her where the stolen money was. “Jamie sighed and stated, ‘Some of it is in my car’.” He led her out to the parking lot where she retrieved “a Hello Kitty brand bag full of money” and handed it over. But it was only $439; the rest, plus her paycheck and more, was lost in the establishment’s slot machines, she said. “Jamie admitted to striking herself in the head with the bowling ball in an attempt to make it look like she had been robbed,” and was arrested. (RC/Decatur Herald-Review) ...Goodbye Kitty.