It's important to note that there are multiple explanations for how the jewelry and screw driver could have been perfectly legitimate and non-criminal. He was not arrested for this and none of the jewelry matched any reported stolen jewelry.
A young man who was a college student of mine was student teaching at a distant rural school. He drove the back country roads every day in an old beater car. The driver side door would no longer open and close properly. He kept a flathead screwdriver in his messenger bag to use when he needed it to get the door to open. Once in a severe ice storm his door froze shut. In trying to get it open, the frozen window broke out. He couldn't get the door shut again. He had to drive the car an hour home in 13* temps with the door and window open. I'm pretty sure he looked quite raggedy. Had he been stopped and searched, that screwdriver in his messenger bag would probably have looked pretty darn suspicious. By his looks that day, he might have been thought to fit the "profile" of a robber, too. He very probably even looked like he was on drugs, but he was only traumatized and hypothermic. Best and nicest kid I ever had in the program. Thank heavens no one called 911 to report him as "suspicious" and no one had a burning passion to not 'let this one get away'.
The jewelry: has it occurred to ANYONE that these could have been used as 'token commodities' or symbolism among young men? My son hung strings of camel bells in his room in late teens/early adulthood and mixed in those and over wallhangings were some pretty women's necklaces and bracelets, the style of his day and generation. Never once did I think he had stolen them; he WAS pretty popular with the ladies though (still is at 31).
lease:
