thief
2003-09-04 | 8:08 a.m.

Yet another bright resident of Salem, OR:

Thief delivers himself to officer's door

Taking packages from a Salem police officer�s home leads to a quick arrest.

DENNIS THOMPSON JR.

Statesman Journal

September 4, 2003

Two packages sitting on a southeast Salem doorstep posed too tempting a target for a man driving by in a stolen car.

He stopped the car, grabbed the packages and tossed them in.

But those packages included a birthday present for Officer Mike Baskett of the Salem Police Department. Baskett was inside his house, waking up just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to prepare for his graveyard shift that night.

And the crook was about to make a very, very bad mistake.

He decided to go back just to make sure no one was home. Baskett answered the door, and the thief fed him a story about looking for a car up for sale.

�I had just woken up and I heard a knock at the door,� Baskett said. �I saw this man standing there and he didn�t look like a deliveryman. He looked suspicious.�

�When I opened the door, he said he was looking for Mike Baskett and said Mike Baskett had called his friend about a car that was for sale,� Baskett said. �I knew I hadn�t.�

Looking past the man, Baskett recognized the car, a blue Acura, as one on the department�s �hot sheet� of stolen vehicles. The hot sheet is a list of 10 to 25 cars stolen within the past two weeks. Baskett convinced the man to wait on his doorstep, went inside and used his radio to call the police.

�I told him Mike Baskett was my roommate and was inside sleeping and I�d go wake him up,� Baskett said. �When I came back, I tried to stall him by saying I was having a hard time waking Mike up.�

Baskett went back inside, grabbed his gun and radio, stuck them in his backpack and came back out in case the man tried to leave before uniformed officers arrived.

He didn�t wait long. A motorcycle officer arrived with lights flashing and made the arrest. Officers then found Baskett�s packages in the stolen car.

Police arrested Jack Weldon Baker, 19, of 4271 Meadowbrook Court NE, Keizer. Baker is charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and mail theft. Baker also was wanted in another burglary and for a probation violation, Salem police Senior Officer Dennis Burnett said.

All that for a rubber duck.

Baskett said the package was a 31st birthday present from his in-laws. It included a certificate of adoption for a rubber duck in an upcoming charity Duck Derby in Southern Oregon and a replica duck for Baskett to keep.

�This was not a very bright crook,� Baskett said. �The whole thing was quite surprising. I find a lot of stolen cars during my shift, and to have one show up in my driveway was unexpected.�

Statesman Journal reporter Dan de Carbonel contributed to this report.

back to top