Cop's Pot Brings Down Porch Bandit

FOREST GROVE, OR — Although police often solve crimes within their communities, it's rather rare for an officer to solve a crime for which they're the victim. Yet that's exactly what happened in Forest Grove last weekend.

While investigating a series of thefts in the city's Oak Hills neighborhood, Forest Grove Police Officer Chris Bowen made a visit to the suspected thief's house. As he approached the home's front door, Bowen immediately recognized the flower pot he'd owned and kept on his own porch for the past 10 years — which had been stolen the day before.

Bowen first realized the flower pot was missing Feb. 23, when both he and his wife found their porch had been rearranged.

"My wife asked if stuff had moved on the porch — if I was redecorating or something," Bowen told Patch. "I was like, 'No, I thought you were redecorating.' Turns out, it was the suspect who decided to redecorate with our stuff."

And not just the Bowens' stuff, either.

So many similar thefts had been occurring in Forest Grove, the community took to social media to share pictures of their burgled belongings, dubbing the unknown thief as the Porch Bandit and asking for neighbors to keep an eye out for their missing items, which reportedly included pillows, lawn ornaments, flower pots, and even a wicker bench — things you'd typically find sitting on a porch.

Following one of the thefts, the victim found they'd captured images of what they believed was the thief's vehicle on their home surveillance camera.

When Bowen joined the community discussion as a new member of the unfortunate club of theft victims, he saw the variety of items recently stolen and the surveillance images, which were then shared with the FGPD.

After reviewing the footage, another officer recognized the suspected thief's car and knew the house where he'd seen it parked before.

Bowen tagged along as FGPD officers went to the house Feb. 24.

"The first thing I saw was my flower pot sitting next to the door," Bowen remembered, noting the first time he saw the pot was upon his return home from deployment to the Middle East while serving as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician in the US Air Force 10 years ago. "I said, 'That is definitely my flower pot.'"

Bowen also recognized several other items on the porch from images he'd seen shared on the community page where the victims had gone to commiserate and seek assistance. But the suspect, identified as 45-year-old Melinda Lucero, wasn't home.

Officers spent the next week making frequent visits to the home, but never when Lucero was present.

Eventually, they left a message with Lucero's roommates: She needed to turn herself in by 9 a.m. Friday, March 2, or the FGPD would seek a warrant for her arrest.

Lucero, after acquiescing the police request, was cited and released Friday on two counts of theft.

For Bowen, who graduated from the police academy's Department of Safety Standards and Training in Salem Jan. 19, it was an unusual welcome to both the police force and the community.

As a resident and an officer, Bowen knows he's invested in the community; but this experience, he said, put his foot in both doors.

Images via Forest Grove Police Department, Chris Bowen