Yesterday morning we had an unusual end to a usual crime here in Tucson. Sometime around 7:30 AM, a pickup truck pulled into the Circle K at 22nd & Prudence, and one man and two women got out. The driver remained behind, presumably to keep the motor running while the three went in.
Those three quickly emerged with four cases of Bud Light. It was a beer theft. My cousin Todd and I witnessed one once at a convenience store.....the driver parks where the clerk can't see the car (and license plate) and the next thing you know someone is wildly running out with a 12 pack. We saw some young punk make off with a 12 pack, whereupon the car quickly sped away once the goods (and thief) were in the car.
Anyway, yesterday morning's was a little more brazen. Three thieves walked in, and between the three of them there were four cases of Bud Light. Why they went for Bud Light instead of Moosehead is one of the several parameters of this incident that doesn't make sense, but that's of little consequence to the big picture. A brazen act of petty theft was committed, and these three quickly deposited their stolen goods into the bed of the pickup, after which they joined the driver. The driver then took off heading west on 22nd Street.
At that point, it is believed that a witness gave chase to this truck. We do know that the truck with its payload of both booty and thieves were in flight, and heading for the intersection of 22nd & Kolb, which is an intersection that's among the top ten when it comes to accidents.
The truck turned north on Kolb. Shortly after this turn, the driver hit another vehicle, and continued northbound. I am going to presume that this truck was traveling at a high rate of speed, as it approached the turnoff to Langley, which would have been in the left lane. The truck made the turn at Langley, and it can only be presumed that the driver of the truck was suffering from some sort of adrenaline rush, like the kind I got as a teenager when I was running from a car that my friends and I had pelted with snowballs, where I vaulted a fence to evade capture (this was back in 1975, when we were living in Manassas, Virginia). I'm sure though that the driver was having a bigger one than I had had. He was a major participant in a beer theft, and it was time to get the royal hell out of there so that they could then go off somewhere and laugh about what they pulled off while getting drunk in the process.
After the truck entered Langley, the driver lost control. What happened then, in a quick succession of milliseconds, was that the truck overturned, ejecting the contents of the truck bed and the driver. The cargo itself separated into several dozen individual bottles of Bud Light which ended up being strewn over a good section of Kolb Road. The truck came to rest in a ditch, pinning the driver. His three passengers quickly got out and fled on foot. The rollover was reported at 7:37 AM, and in short order the Tucson Police Department secured the scene. The Pima County Sheriff's Posse came out to assist in the search of the suspects, bringing bloodhounds. At least one of the passengers was injured as that blood belonging to one of them was observed.
The driver ended up dying at the scene. The passengers ended up at large. Kolb Road was closed to traffic for several hours between 22nd and Broadway. In the afternoon, the passengers were still at large, and the Tucson Police identified the fatality as 37 year old Henry T. Dennison.
Being the somewhat curious person that I am, I found myself doing some research on this Henry T. Dennison. Online court records showed that he had several traffic offenses, including running a red light and a DUI. He also was criminally charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Last month, on the 9th of May to be exact, a criminal complaint of shoplifting was filed against him, with a pending court action on this. For reasons known only to Henry T. Dennison and his "friends" who quickly abandoned him, he wasn't ready to quit shoplifting, only this time he wasn't going to do the actual dirty work of it himself.
What I read in the court records didn't surprise me, but it still made little sense. Like those gangbangers in last month's robbery of the auto stereo installer, he had a criminal record, and like that 18 year old gangbanger who was killed in the course of the robbery, Henry T. Dennison met his end in the commission of crime. Even though I found myself wondering why he didn't learn from last month's shoplifting bust, I decided to do a little more research on Henry T. Dennison.
Henry T. Dennison showed up in the records of the Arizona Corporation Commission. He was listed as a Director of Henden Corporation, a firm here in Tucson that excavates sites for construction purposes. He lived in an upscale neighborhood, and although he wasn't listed as the President of Henden (someone else has that title) I think it's possible that he was a principal owner. The latest filing with the Commission showed that this corporation employed fewer than 25, and that annual sales were between $750,000 and $1.2 million.
After collecting all of this and digesting this, I'm left with the following questions.
Why did he feel the need to steal four cases of Bud Light? Surely as a major player in a local business he could have well afforded to pay for this, but he must have figured that he could get it out of that Circle K without having to pay for it. And he was right. He got out of there and had the same amount of money on him (and in his checking account, if he would have used debit otherwise) that he did when he pulled into the parking lot. He knew that he was going to have to make a quick getaway. For all we know, he may have engineered beer thefts before.
The next question is, what of his three fair weather friends? At least one of them was injured to the point of bleeding. They may have suffered broken bones. Whatever their condition, they were all well enough to flee on foot. They have undoubtedly read about themselves in the local paper and/or seen the reports about what they did on the news. Are these three hiding out together, or separately? Did they feel the need for some more beer now that their stash was destroyed? Did they actually pay for some beer later on that afternoon? Do they plan on attending the funeral of Henry T. Dennison?
Either way you slice this, this is a strange story. The more research I did into this, the more bizarre it became.
One criminal career came to an abrubt end yesterday morning.
What remains to be seen is if three other criminal careers will continue.
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ReplyDeletehttp://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/HenryDennison/Homepage.aspx
ReplyDeleteHenry was once a successful business owner, but for the last 10 years he became involved with crack cocaine. He was once president of a excavating business,but had to step down before it was lost due to the fact that being a crack addict and a business owner didn't mix. He went to about five rehabs, but could not kick the habit. Henry still did work in the business occasionally, but everyone that new Henry did there best to keep money away from him. That is why Henry at times resorted to pan handling, pawning items from the house and stealing beer to get a fix. Henry was an out standing worker he just could not break the addiction to crack cocaine, no matter how much his parents and brother & sisters tried to help him kick the habit. I am just glad no one else died in that accident and that the parents of Henry will no longer wait up long nights wondering where he is. Henry never lived on his own, because with his addiction to crack cocaine he never would have made it this far. I will miss Henry. I wish I could have known him better. It seemed the more he got involved with crack cocaine the farther he grew apart from every one in his family including friends.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input (and for your email). I was going to post a followup entry this morning to mention the addiction part of this.
ReplyDeletePlease accept my condolences.