JASPER, Indiana - In an incredible coincidence of timing, a fleeing burglar took a giant leap of faith and landed right in the long arms of the law, literally. Trent Carie, 21, was inside the Main Street Restaurant & Bar when a passing police officer spotted him and suspected a robbery was underway.

According to Sgt. Mike Fowler, Carie ran from the store and jumped over a tall fence only to land in the arms of another officer and a trooper who had just arrived at the scene. Carie is believed to be the culprit of at least a dozen burglaries of several businesses in the area in recent weeks.

I have been a police officer for 24 years. I work for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana.

In April 1997 till April 1998, while I was assigned to the Detective bureau, I was working an undercover sting operation buying stolen property while the crooks thought I was running a legitimate business. I had an occasion to do business with 5 subjects that came in to sell two stolen automobiles, a 1996 Chevy MonteCarlo Super Sport and a 1997 Buick Regal.

I paid $700.00 for the two vehicles. I knew who one of the subjects was because he had sold us other property, but I did not know who the other four were. Four of the five had gold teeth in their mouths and the fifth said he was going to buy some gold teeth with the money I paid them.

Each transaction was videotaped and the five kept moving around so much I was not sure if the camera captured all five. Then I had an idea, I told my partner to watch this and the subjects heard me. I told the subjects to line up in front of the counter placing them in the camera’s view. Then I told them to all smile, and they all complied and I told my partner, “look at all of those gold teeth.”

The subjects started laughing and thought I was showing off their gold teeth, but actually they were smiling for the camera.

What made their arrest easy was when they left my business they went across the street to catch the bus to go home. While at the bus stop they got into an argument and someone called the police on them. When my partner and I left the shop, we saw the police with the 5 subjects. I called the police on the radio and asked why they were there and the office told me he was there on a complaint for a disturbance. I asked him to arrest the 5 for the disturbance and forward a copy of their arrest report to me. The officer sent me the arrest reports and copies of the photographs which were matched up by their names. After the sting operation was over with the five were subsequently arrested for auto theft.