The thing about chain stores is that they’re all the same. All the aisles follow the same floor plans, and the employees are trained with the same set of rules at every location. With all those chain store patterns set up, it’s easy to replicate them all over the country and the world. That way, customers always know what to expect each and every time they visit, no matter where they are.
It also means that criminals know what to expect from each chain store too, so they’re the perfect location for the perfect crime.
That’s right, there are criminals who specialize in targeting chain stores.
Or, at least there’s one.
Former U.S. Army reservist Jeffery Allen Manchester, who became known as “Roofman,” made a name for himself by targeting fast-food chains in a crime spree in the 1990s and early 2000s.
He got his nickname thanks to his preferred method of travel: dropping into restaurants through the roof. And that’s not even the craziest part of his story. Roofman also escaped prison in the middle of the day and hid out in the back of a store by building a makeshift apartment for himself.
He was a true criminal mastermind, and his story just gets weirder and weirder.
Just like his name implies, the Roofman had a thing for roofs.
His method totally makes sense once you learn the logic.
He would cut holes in the roofs of chain stores and restaurants and then dropped down through the ceiling.
Sometimes he would pop in through a hole in the wall of a storeroom or kitchen. Most employees he encountered were teens working for minimum wage, so they weren’t too keen on risking their lives to try and stop him.
He always had the same routine.
No matter what, he would sneak in and surprise store workers, classic cat burglar-style.
And it always worked.
The Roofman was pretty considerate.
It’s not that often that you hear about kind criminals. He was known for his gentle demeanor with employees of the chain stores, even as he robbed them.
He was polite and would say please and thank you.
He even encouraged a group of employees to stay warm by putting on jackets before he locked them in a walk-in freezer.
He had a favorite fast-food chain.
Since most McDonald’s locations have the same layout, the Roofman was able to repeat his burglary easily.
It became such an easy routine for him that he was able to hit up over 40 McDonald’s restaurants throughout the 1990s.
The Roofman loved spatial patterns.
The criminal loved noticing patterns like repeating floor plans, employee rhythms, and time card schedules.
That passion helped him to crack the codes of fast-food chains so he could easily infiltrate them.
He also loved mazes and trap-doors.
Investigators later found his plans for his dream home that includes hidden compartments and labyrinths.
He was arrested and sent to prison in 2000.
The police were pretty impressed with him.
When asked about the Roofman, one officer said, “I’ve never seen someone so determined.”
Even though they were impressed with his skills and dedication, he still was sent to Brown Creek Correctional Institution in in Polkton, North Carolina.
He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
But he was determined to make his stay much shorter.
He learned patterns in prison too.
He kept busy while behind bars.
While the Roofman was in prison, he worked in the machine shop. During his time in shop, he was able to build a contraption to help him escape.
That’s not all that was keeping him occupied, though.
He also spent that time noticing more patterns; this time he watched deliveries coming in and out and took note of their schedules.
The Roofman escaped prison by hitching a ride with a truck.
You have to give him credit for his inventive escape.
The Roofman built a contraption that could fit under a truck and hold him.
That way, he could sneak under during a routine delivery and ride it out of the prison.
That’s exactly what he did one rainy day when the weather helped him stay hidden from guards.
It worked, and he rode that truck to freedom after only five years behind bars. He was the first person ever to escape from Brown Creek Correctional Institution in Polkton, North Carolina.
He set up camp in a Toys ‘R’ Us in North Carolina.
He made a makeshift home by the bike rack.
BrokenSphere/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
After the Roofman escaped, he sought out another chain establishment.
This time, he made a makeshift home for himself in a cubbyhole by the bicycles in a Toys ‘R’ Us in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
He occupied himself by playing with cars on the roof at night and hatching his next burglary plans.
The Roofman got to work on a new scheme.
He set up cameras all over the Toys “R” Us. The Roofman installed secret baby monitor cameras throughout the Toys ‘R’ Us so he could observe the employees.
He went as far as to track their every move.
He tracked their routines and took note of their schedules so that he could plan an attack on the store when they’d be most vulnerable.
“He would just watch the baby monitor and know exactly when everyone was coming and going,” Sergeant Katherine Scheimreif of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department explained.
Meanwhile, he made a bizarre den in another store.
He moved into the abandoned Circuit City next to Toys ‘R’ Us.
The Toys ‘R’ Us was attached to a space that had been a Circuit City before it was abandoned.
Since nobody went in there, The Roofman was able to set up an even more elaborate hideout.
And his decor choices were somewhat strange.
According to Geoff Manaugh’s A Burglar’s Guide to the City, his Circuit City room looked more like that of a child’s than a criminal mastermind:
“Manchester had been sleeping on Spider-Man-themed bedsheets, with Spider-Man film posters tacked up on his makeshift walls, surrounded by DVDs stolen from the children’s toy store next door.”
“This pirate of space-time, ritualistically breaking his way into identical commercial moments across the country, convinced of his own genius, had constructed for himself the escapist bedroom of an eleven-year-old.”
The Roofman was charitable and went to church.
He even found a girlfriend through the church.
As he continued to live in that Circuit City, the Roofman joined the Crossroads Presbyterian Church. He volunteered for the church often and donated toys.
Presumably, those toys were stolen from his home, AKA Toys ‘R’ Us, but it’s still a very nice gesture.
He made himself part of the community and started a relationship with a woman there, so the people of Mecklenburg County didn’t suspect anything strange from him.
The Roofman did everything in his power to keep his identity a secret.
He even torched his dental records. While he was hiding out in his various chain store abodes, the Roofman needed to get some dental work done. However, dental records are an excellent way for the authorities to identify people.
Since The Roofman didn’t want to be discovered, he did what anybody would do and burned the entire building containing his dental records.
He continued to plan his heist of the Toys ‘R’ Us.
He stole a gun from a pawnshop to do so.
He sneaked into employee offices in Toys ‘R’ Us and toyed with the employee schedules.
But this wasn’t just for twisted fun; he manipulated the schedule so there would be a time when guards and managers were both off-duty.
Then he could strike.
Unfortunately for the Roofman, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy unexpectedly arrived at the Toys ‘R’ Us and threw his plan off track. He attacked the deputy and fled the scene of the crime.
His girlfriend was shocked to discover the truth.
The Roofman had been very involved with her family.
While the police were searching for the The Roofman, they turned to his girlfriend, Leigh Wainscott. She didn’t believe them until they showed her evidence of his crimes.
“I was numb and in shock. I was hysterical,” she said.
He had given gifts to her children and spent the holidays with them, so she couldn’t believe someone who was becoming a part of the family was actually a chain-store burglar.
His girlfriend helped the police catch him.
The police used her as bait.
After she learned his true identity, Wainscott agreed to work with the police to find the Roofman, who had since fled. She told him to come to her home for her 40th birthday.
He took the bait.
Unfortunately for the Roofman, he wasn’t attending a party. When he arrived, he found the police instead of his girlfriend’s family.
The Roofman was genteel to the very end.
He didn’t put up a fight when he was arrested.
True to his kind nature, the Roofman took his arrest very well.
Wainscott said, “He was very sad and humbled and felt terrible that he had to deceive us. He encouraged me and told me to be strong and to do the things we talked about doing. He wasn’t upset.”
It’s nice to know that he was true to his character (and non-violent) even as he was taken down.
Not much has been publicly stated about the Roofman since his 2005 arrest. Is he in jail? If so, will he escape again?
