Mayor of Indy claims he was robbed while at the Final Four...

**urbanoutdoors** · April-06-09, 01:50 PM

http://freep.com/article/20090406/SP...20Final%20Four
The story sounds awful shotty to me...
A team of four criminals to get a cell phone...
Doesn't add up to me....

**jcole** · April-06-09, 01:52 PM

Or they were just shoddy thieves....

**spiritofdetroit** · April-06-09, 01:52 PM

fantastic news

**Johnlodge** · April-06-09, 01:53 PM

Where's your Executive Protection Unit when you need them?

**Gannon** · April-06-09, 02:10 PM

Nah, he probably lost a bet and had to make up a story for his wife.

Of course, it took a houseful of hippies to steal MY cell phone last Friday night...

**artds** · April-06-09, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by urbanoutdoors

http://freep.com/article/20090406/SP...20Final%20Four
The story sounds awful shotty to me...
A team of four criminals to get a cell phone...
Doesn't add up to me....

You can't determine their motive just from the fact that all they got was a cell phone

I think it's safe to say they were fishing in his pocket for something more than a phone, such as a wallet or money clip, and all they came up with was a phone.

**hockey_player** · April-06-09, 02:22 PM

You're right - doesn't add up. There is no crime in Detroit, and the mayor of some other town came here and publicly made up a story to make us look bad.

That makes far more sense.

**thefishwrap** · April-06-09, 02:29 PM

Do you guys seriously think this guy is making it up? The Detroit News story is a bit better than the Freep one:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...+at+Final+Four

It discusses a previous warning about a professional group of pickpockets in the area. They did a good job of setting the guy up, it appears.

**Russix** · April-06-09, 02:47 PM

That was a pro setup, luckily they hit a mayor or else we would have never heard of this fine story.

**Johnlodge** · April-06-09, 02:54 PM

A man arrested over the weekend for pick-pocketing was being questioned about the incident involving the mayor, said Tate, who added that Michigan State Police had issued a law enforcement warning in advance of the event that a nationally known group of professional pickpockets was expected to arrive for the event.

**Thames** · April-06-09, 02:55 PM

At least they were out of town criminals and not locals.

**jcole** · April-06-09, 02:58 PM

Yes, everyone please beware of the above group of pick-pockets. Their favorite ruse is to sing 'Consider Yourself One of Us' while dancing in unison and then sending the small starving child in front in to distract your attention.

**Downriviera** · April-06-09, 04:21 PM

They use diversions like pillow fights.

**rjk** · April-06-09, 04:31 PM

That's what he gets for getting involved and trying to help someone.

If he were more of a prick and kept on walking he'd be using his cellphone right now.

I hope he learned a lesson from this experience.

**bragaboutme** · April-06-09, 04:37 PM

Do you think he's worried about his text messages being leaked?

**MrNittany** · April-06-09, 07:18 PM

Interesting. If you like conspiracy theories ............

Indianapolis is getting a Super Bowl in February 2012, but speculation is the NFL will probably have another "northern" Super Bowl in the late 2010s-2020 time frame.

There will be 2 principle candidates, unless a dome gets built in the meantime in NYC or Washington DC. Ford Field and Indy.

**Jimaz** · April-06-09, 07:38 PM

This is why I carry a decoy wallet in my hip pocket while traveling. I should put a dye pack in it.

**Ocean2026** · April-06-09, 07:42 PM

He was probably a Purdue fan and because of that read the scores from the previous games wrong and thought he'd see his team play.

The smart people from Indiana went to Indiana [[U.).

**Detroitej72** · April-06-09, 07:44 PM

He should have used the "do you know who I am?" card to the perps.

**tetsua** · April-06-09, 08:40 PM

Apparently a Michigan prosecutor was pick pocketed too.

http://www.freep.com/article/2009040...ckpocketed+too

**kraig** · April-07-09, 07:19 AM

Pickpocketers are all about blending in and not bringing attention to themselves. It's unlikely that he was set up by pickpockets, he probably just left it with someone whom he would have a hard time expalining things to his wife.

**MoparDan** · April-07-09, 07:56 AM

A new twist to an old story perhaps?
http://www.answers.com/topic/george-steinbrenner

"In 1981, the Yankees returned to the World Series. However, after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first two games, the Yankees dropped the next three. Following Game Five, Steinbrenner called a late-night press conference to hold up a flimsily bandaged hand and announce that he had defended the Yankee honor by beating up two Dodger fans in an elevator."

**hockey_player** · April-07-09, 09:20 AM

Yes Kraig, BOTH of them lost their belongings and went through the trouble of filing a false police report rather than admit an understandable mistake to their spouses.

The Kool-Aid seems to be pretty strong the past couple days.

gravitymachine · April-07-09, 09:31 AM

the fact that only a couple reports of pickpocketing have hit the news, might just qualify as a success in my book. remember how two people where murdered downtown during super bowl weekend? though one of those incidents was reasonably well suppressed, so it would be a reasonable assumtion that there were incidents this time around that went unreported as well.

some of the most traveled and respected cities in the world have reputations for pickpocketing and similar graft, why the hell would anyone think that detroit, of ALL places, would be any different.

**kraig** · April-07-09, 09:50 AM

Yes Kraig, BOTH of them lost their belongings and went through the trouble of filing a false police report rather than admit an understandable mistake to their spouses.

The Kool-Aid seems to be pretty strong the past couple days.

I only spoke to Greg Ballard's story, not the other one. In her case, her stuff was stolen by someone blending in with the crowd at a bar. Ideally, a pickpocket wants to pick your pocket and be long gone before you realize that your wallet is missing. This provides the pickpocketer the time to use your credit cards before you can report them stolen. In his alleged case, the pickpocketers drew attention to themselves and their victim in the way they did things, which would provide them little or no time to use his credit cards. Oh wait, they didn't take his wallet, they just wanted his cell phone because they can get a lot of money for that [[wink, wink). Now, I'm not going to accuse anyone of drinking any kool-aid, I'm just saying that I recognize a likely fraudulent story when I see it.

Do this hockeyplayer, talk to some married women and ask them what they would think if their husband's came home and told them that a team of pickpocketers went through an elaborate ruse just to lure him in to only take his cell phone. After that go eat some fish, I think you could use some brain food.