Bay Head and Mantoloking Police Working Hard to Catch Sandal Stealing "Flip-flop Kid"

Detective Richard Tracy of the Bay Head Police has seen a lot of things during the many years on the force, but even he has never seen anything like the "Flip-flop Kid." That is the nickname Mantoloking and Bay Head Police officers have given to the perpetrator who has been stealing flip-flops from Bay Head and Mantoloking beaches.

"To be honest, this case is just weird, " said Detective Tracy. "Someone has been taking flip-flops right off the beach leaving innocent beachgoers to go barefoot. And I'm not talking about one or two pairs of flip-flops, either. Our two departments have already received close to 20 complaints and I would guess there are a lot more that haven't been reported."

The Detective is heading up the joint taskforce with Mantoloking Police investigating these crimes. The taskforce, called Flip-flop Stop, has several leads, but nothing Detective Tracy considers solid.

"We've gotten two eye-witness reports, but all they could confirm was that the individual was male," said Tracy. That came as a bit of a shock to the 23 year police veteran. "All the flip-flops taken belonged to women, so at first I couldn't understand what was going on," he said,

The Flip-flip Stop taskforce decided to contact Dr, Thomas McCann, professor of criminal studies at Rutgers University. Dr. McCann explained to the task force that they were likely dealing with an individual with a flip-flop fetish. Dr. McCann speculated that it was probably not the first time the individual had stolen women's footwear.

"After we spoke with Dr. McCann, we decided to check with other municipalities to see if they had ever experienced anything similar," Tracy said. Sure enough, after checking with a few shore towns, the taskforce discovered that Manasquan had experienced a rash of flip-flop thefts in 2018. Unfortunately, Manasquan police never solved the crimes.

"We are determined to bring this Flip-flop Kid to justice," noted Detective Tracy. "We already have several officers in plain clothes at several beaches, keeping an eye on beachgoers' flip-flops. We are also asking the public that they help us by remaining vigilant when they wear flip-flops to the beach."

Detective Tracy is confident they will capture the culprit, but ask that anyone who has experienced flip-flop theft should report it to the police. In the next week, they will also be asking victims of the crimes to come to the station so that a police dog can smell their feet to get a scent of the missing flip-flops. The canine will then patrol the beaches and hopefully find the scent on the perpetrator.

"Flip-flops may not seem like a big deal, but crime is crime," said Detective Tracy. "It's important that people can go to the beach confident that their footwear is safe."


Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 1, 2020 at 6:19 AM

    This is why I don't come to the Jersey shore anymore. Too many weirdos and thieves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 18, 2020 at 7:15 PM

    Hysterical

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 2, 2021 at 11:16 AM

    I'm flip flop freak too but I buy of make them.

    ReplyDelete

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