Bail Blog
04/01/2013
A burglar fell through a department store ceiling in front of cops that were looking for him. Paul Masters, 47, fought against the officers who were waiting to arrest him at Roses department store at the Eastland Shopping Center in Kentucky.
Employees had called the police because they had noticed several tiles displaced from the drop-tile ceiling around 1 p.m. Later on they heard someone moving around above them in the ceiling.
The cops used ladders to peer into different areas of the ceiling and finally spotted Masters near the front of the store. The attic was so cramped that there was barely room to stand up in. Masters tried to escape but slipped and fell through the ceiling tile.
Police said that store burglaries in the middle of the day are rare.
“This is very uncommon for something like this to occur at 1 o’clock in the afternoon,” Lexington police Lt. Sam Murdock said. “This is typically the type of crime we would see usually in the early-morning hours when businesses are closed and there are not a lot of pedestrians or patrons present.”
Masters told police that he was in the ceiling to “retrieve money for a friend.” Police did not find anything in the ceiling except for a hat, gloves and a pry bar.
Masters fell about 12 feet and struggled against the officers before a Taser was used on him to keep him under control. His face was wounded and he was taken to a hospital to be examined.
He was charged with first-degree burglary and fleeing or evading police at the Fayette County Detention Center.