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Police Track Down Suspect With Help From Box Of Girl Scout Cookies
Crime-fighting cookies. (Photo by Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar via the Creative Commons)
Joseph Kopff, taken down by a box of Girl Scout Cookies (Photo via Hemet Police Department)
His biggest crime: wasting a perfectly good box of Thin Mint cookies!On Thursday, police in Hemet were able to track down a getaway motorcyclist with help from a box of Thin Mint cookies. According to a statement posted on the Hemet Police Department's Facebook page, Joseph Kopff sped off after police tried to pull him over on the 1300 block of East Florida Avenue. Kopff managed to get away, hitting speeds of 100 miles per hour, but not before police noticed he threw something into the bushes.
Officers spotted the tossed item, which turned out to be a box of Thin Mints with a note attached to it, listing a number for Kopff to call if the suspect was interested in buying more cookies. Police received reports of a motorcyclist pulling into a trailer park on the 600 block of North State Street, and found Kopff's motorcycle next to his home, "so hot it was smoking" underneath a tarp.
Calling the number listed on the note, a sales representative with the Girl Scouts confirmed they had sold a box of Thin Mints to a motorcyclist and was able to positively identify Kopff. "People have called him the 'Thin Mint Bandit,'" Sergeant Randy Young told the L.A. Times.
Kopff has been booked on suspicion of felony reckless evading, speeding and driving on a suspended license. We can probably add a littering violation on top of all that.
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