A Story From 1984 About Somebody Named "Bobby Joe Champion," And A Shoplifting Ring At Target In Ridgedale...

Stanley corporate logo, this image in public domain according to 
Wikipedia, blog post by John Hoff

A reader sent me an interesting story about somebody named "Bobby Joe Champion" (relationship to anybody else named "Champion" or "Bobby Joe Champion" unknown) which I am not publishing in its entirety...

I worked in the 1980s as a floorwalker at Target at 701 West Broadway (now Cub Foods store). I repeatedly encountered...


There. That's as much as I'm publishing because it's all very unproven. As for the Stanley logo, which goes with Stanley screwdrivers, well...I will illustrate my blog post in the way I see fit even if that means teasing my readers, just a bit. 

Let us continue...

In response to this VERY INTERESTING BUT UNSUBSTANTIATED email, I asked the reader, "But do you have any proof of these things? Any old police reports, anything like that?"

To which the reader responded:

I will tell you, I have nothing other than this court case.

http://www.leagle.com/decision/1987574413NW2d161_1565

The case contains interesting facts, and then a lot of legalese not nearly so interesting to my readers. So I am copying and pasting the relevant fact section of the case here for the perusal of my audience and, again, I do not have any proof this person named "Bobby Joe Champion" is related to anybody but HIMSELF...though in the case, this "Bobby Joe Champion" is described as the "brother" of Nona Lee Champion. 

So there's THAT. 

In some places, the name "Bobby Champion" is used, but deep in the text this person is also referred to as "Bobby Joe Champion." 

Here. Check it out for yourself and draw your own conclusions. 

(State of Minnesota v. Nona Lee Champion, No. C1-86-2188)

On December 27, 1984, Karl Pixler, a plainclothes security officer at Target in Ridgedale, saw four black women enter the store around 8 p.m. Pixler testified he got a good look at them and recognized two from seeing them in the store in the past. At trial, Pixler identified one of the two as Champion.

Pixler saw Champion push a shopping cart up the computer aisle. The women stood around the cart, with the cart next to the rack. Pixler saw them place three boxes in the cart, two of which he recognized as containing Commodore Plus 4 computers. He was not sure whether Champion had placed any of the boxes in the cart.

The women pushed the cart into another aisle. Another security officer, Timothy Fisher, arrived and told Pixler he saw two black men walking through the store. Pixler left to watch the men, and saw them walking along the main aisle, talking and not looking at any items. The men stopped at the aisle the women were in, looked towards the women, said something to each other, and then kept walking. Pixler concluded they were acting as lookouts.

Fisher recognized boxes in the cart as containing Commodore Plus 4 computers, priced at $299 each. He testified the women were crowded around the cart, and one of them removed a computer keyboard from one of the boxes and placed it in a black bag. At trial, Fisher identified Champion as one of the four women, but could not say whether she was the one who put the keyboard in the bag.

Pixler testified he saw the women leave the store one at a time and enter a blue car with a white roof, driven by one of the men. When Fisher returned to the aisle the women had been in, he found two empty Commodore Plus 4 boxes; an empty Record-A-Call box; an empty Atari printer box; and a styrofoam insert for the Atari box.

About 9 that night, a man identifying himself as Willy Wesley returned a Commodore Plus 4 computer at the Target

West Broadway store. He did not have a sales receipt. The man received a cash refund of $317.99 and left.

A security manager at Target in Crystal, Judy Larson, had been notified by Pixler about the theft at Ridgedale. Shortly before 10 that night, she saw four black women and two black men enter the store. Larson called the police.

The men went to the service desk, identified themselves as Bobby Champion and Willis Wesley, and returned a Commodore Plus 4 computer and an Atari 1027 printer for cash refunds of $317.99 and $296.79. They did not have sales receipts.

The men and women left the store together and were arrested after they entered a blue car with a white roof. The persons arrested were Nona, her brother Bobby Joe Champion, Willy Wesley, Alice Johnson, Etavia Jefferson and Tawana Williams. Pixler identified the four women and Bobby Joe Champion from police photographs as the persons he saw at Target Ridgedale. Fisher identified from police photographs Nona, Jefferson, and Bobby Joe Champion as the driver of the car.

Neither the Atari printer nor the Commodore computer returned at Crystal matched the serial numbers on the empty Ridgedale boxes, although one of the Commodore boxes did not have a serial number. Fisher testified it was common for computer items to be sold in boxes with differing serial numbers at that time of year, because items returned without boxes would be placed in empty boxes found on shelves.

The state introduced evidence relating to Nona's two prior convictions for shoplifting.

Nona did not testify. Her brother Bobby Joe testified that on the night of December 27th he returned a computer he had received as a Christmas gift, and he took along Nona and some friends. They were arrested after returning to the car.

The jury found Nona Champion guilty of theft over $250 under Minn.Stat. §§ 609.52, subd. 2(1), 609.52, subd. 3(2), 609.05 (1986). The trial court rejected her motion for a dispositional departure and sentenced her to the sentencing guidelines' presumptive sentence of 19 months imprisonment. 

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IF ANYBODY CAN TELL JNS BLOG about connections (if they exist) between "Nona" and this "Bobby Joe Champion" and anybody else who might have similar names, JNS blog is oh-so-interested and, as always, has its bloggy ear to the ground. 

Ouch.

Cold. The ground is cold. 

That was just supposed to be a metaphor, you know. Don't go putting your bare ear on cold Minnesota ground.