do you have a tile do you know what that is a rag what you mean a rag no not a towel a tile t I L E do you know what that is no you don't know what it is I don't know what you're talking about so if these are your car keys you should know what's on your car keys right yeah okay that's all the initial stop qualifies as an investigative detention under Terry versus Ohio 1968 reasonable articulable suspicion not probable cause is all that is required at this stage an eyewitness report a matching description and immediate possession of the stolen bag meet that threshold on April 25th, 2000 twenty four airport officers were dispatched in response to a report of a man stealing a flight attendant's luggage and leaving the airport officer soon located a man matching the suspect's description come on come on grab your stuff step off oh grab your stuff let's go and step off real quick go ahead and step off grab your grab I know I got it I'm we're gonna bring it off no go ahead and grab your card go and get off I'll get the card just a favor have a seat over here okay so where are you coming from I just come from downtown downtown yeah OK so were you at the airport just a minute ago not recently not recently OK so why would we have a Sonia luggage with you in your possession cause I got a call for it you got a call for it yeah who called you for it my her her she called you so right now we have you at the airport going to there and just picking that up and walking away she called me OK do you have any idea on you or anything like that no I don't OK how'd she call you oh Parkland she she called you at Parkland yes I was at Parkland OK and how do you know her oh long been friends for a long time been friends for a long time very long time so how old is is Sonia how old is she I'm sorry how old is she yeah how do you guys know each other I know you said a long time but how do you know each other you guys go to school together you guys yeah so she's the same age as you what age is that it's been so long so you don't know your own age yeah I know my age OK the same age I'm 36 OK so she she would be 36 also OK OK is that your hospital band yes let me see it real quick hey i'mma take a picture of it alright I got the spelling wrong what were you in Parkland for oh medication medication OK well I see all those cards that you have in your hand are also for Sonia as well she tell you to get those too yep OK well whose car keys are those those are her car keys too no it's mine those are your car keys yes it's mine we share a car OK so here's the deal so we're so right now you're detained okay you're detained for an ongoing investigation for theft in progress okay we're gonna contact Miss Sonia to see if she actually told you to come get it for okay okay right now would probably be the best thing to probably tell us the truth about what I picked up a luggage okay were you directed to yes I got called you were called yeah by Sonia herself and said hey go pick up my luggage from the airport I got caught how how do you know Sonia you just told us all the time your friend long time friend where'd y'all meet way back in high school high school yes the same age I just gave him the PNR so he's gonna go talk to prospect and just get a contact number OK do you have anything that's on you that's any weapons or anything like that needles knives or anything like that no no where'd you get that watch from I've been having it you've been having it yes for a long time quite a long time so is that a credit card Sonia's credit card no it's not a credit card debit card yes it's a debit card yes we can see those keys real quick they're old it's old car so what kind of car is it Lincoln Lincoln OK so do you have a phone on you do you have a tile do you know what that is a tile do you know what a tile is like a tile t I l e a rag what you mean a rag no not a towel a tile t I L E do you know what that is no you don't know what it is I don't know what you're talking about so if these are your car keys you should know what's on your car keys right yeah okay that's all I understand it's an old car but when I ask you do you have a tile you don't know what that is there happens to be a tile on this keychain you would think you know what a tile is if you have it on your keychain it's been so long I've been in parking all day okay so Tuan you see how the story is not adding up right pre arrest questioning does not trigger Miranda Burkimer versus McCartney 1984 is controlling Miranda attaches upon custodial interrogation after formal arrest every statement here was legally obtained the victim's verbal consent to search her luggage satisfies the consent exception under Schneckloth versus Bustamante 1973 no warrant was required the inventory that followed was fully lawful however the search of the suspect's person lacked an on camera verbalization of legal authority Terry frisk consent or incident to arrest one of these applied none was stated that gap invites a suppression argument probable cause was established through the totality of circumstances test from Illinois versus Gates 1983 physical possession inconsistent statements fatal discrepancy and the victim's denial of consent each fact compounds the others the victims phone confirmation was the decisive element it transformed a disputed claim into an independent evidentiary record I just don't want I mean I can ask anybody out here they probably know exactly what's on their car keys okay sure but I mean I mean we can figure out we can call right now and see if she has a Lincoln if she has a tile on if she can track it and if it all comes back to her you have her keys in her possession I've been at work and I was going and I was going back to work so what made you come out here to the airport besides coming to pick up her stuff oh no I've been having a long day a long day so what time she call you oh this way earlier and I'm late I was late picking it up and what made what made her have you come pick up the bag instead of her picking up her own bag it's a long friend she called me for an emergency for emergency room yes OK hey um we're here we're here at the baggage claim the bag was actually sitting next to the ticket counter by them it was a bag that came in earlier the passengers not even here they don't have any of the information it looks like it came in at 2:30 but I got the PNR and actually we just looked at the bag tag and it's got a phone number so I'll call them just call them right now all the information is on the bag so I guess contact the victim see what they want done sweet thank you cool thank you I guess that would have been easy just to look at that hey figured out as we go yeah is this is this Miss Sonia this is the uh Officer Chris Cons from DFW Airport police how are you so we have a we have an incident um do you know a hold on one second let me get his name first of all do you know a Shawn Tuan okay did you request anybody to pick up your bags from the airport today okay we currently have a bag in that has your number your uh bag tag on it in our possession uh one of a an individual got off of a dark train walked up to the terminal a grabbed your bag got back on the dark train we have him here in our custody right now he's detained um so I'm making contact with you to make sure um whether or not you gave him permission to retrieve your bag cause he's stating that you called him to come pick up his bag for him for you okay um do you happen to own a vehicle what kind of vehicle do you own a Lincoln m K s OK do you have a tile on your keychain OK it doesn't work what about like a white watch if I was to send you pictures of things with gold on it just watch this yep okay do I have permission to run uh go through your bag to make sure everything's all here we're gonna search the individual's person um to make sure what else he has on him he does have your white watch with gold um ring he's actually currently wearing it he said he's had that for a long time um he said the the car keys was his uh it's an old Lincoln um but whenever I asked him about the tile he couldn't he didn't even know what a tile was so which confirmed the fact that he didn't even know those were his car keys um but we're gonna search him to make sure there's nothing else on him that may be yours I know he was holding a couple credit cards in his hands when I first make contact with him but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take a picture of everything that was on his person and I'm gonna send them to you let me give you a call back and then um I'll let you know everything else OK don't take the gun so this stuff is for sure all his he had the American Airlines jacket on him yeah uh before you bring in any of the property I just let him know he has a a lot or two lighters I'll let him know though so those are definitely his slides OK i'mma throw his pizza away yeah but he's got Sonia's name on oh he wrote it on there or something I don't know hey all those cards that he had yeah no I wanna see if they're hers cause he had her debit card on him so I don't know yeah so I don't know where he got these from now I can't prove the cash hi Miss Sunny it's Officer Khan's again so I just went and did a just a search of your bag uh your bag um I'm just gonna go over things with you as I put it back in so I pulled everything out and I'm gonna go over it with you putting it back in um you have several articles of like envelopes and paperwork and documents with all your name on it in here couple gift cards in here that has your I think there's also like a membership card or something like that with your name on it he had those um gift cards on his person your white guess watch on his person and also the car keys on his person what I need from you a copy of your driver's license and can you give me like a ballpark estimate of how much all this would cost the reason I'm asking is cause there's different levels of offenses for theft well I know the uniforms alone cost about 300 and then the watches I would say I would say we're close to like $1,000 in that bag if you if you yeah if you added the gift cards and all that yeah okay so that um that guess watch was about 300 guess watch was about 300 okay yeah the other watch that you had in that flat or that baggy is that another guest watch I'm assuming no it's a Nine West watch yeah that that that probably was about only about about 59 or something like that just all the earrings together I would just say about 150 200 dollars okay um that is enough for us right now to basically add the charge that we need to have okay so I don't know 100% my belief is where did you have a American Airlines sweatshirt at whatever it like right on top yeah my sweater yes a sweater yeah so it I don't know and I'm not digging too far into this Miss Sonia I don't know how you pack your bags um it doesn't it does look like it may have been gone through but it looks like all he did was take stuff out of the where was your car keys and the white gold watch at it was on the it was on the it should have been in what like a pocket on the side in the front like a top front pocket like the small front pocket on the top yeah okay yeah that's where that's the only pouch that was open um I don't believe a sweatshirt would fit in there which leads me to believe that he did enter into your main compartment of your suitcase um but the only part that was open when I made contact with him was the top small part which I LED to believe is where probably all that small stuff was located the stuff are you saying sweatshirt are you saying a sweater or yeah the sweater I'm sorry the pull uh just like the sweater jacket with like the American Airlines wings symbol on them that's the only thing that had on it but nothing else he had on him except for like I said your car keys the actual white watch with the gold uh the guest watch he actually had around his wrist he was wearing it um the baggie of the miscellaneous jewelry that was at the very bottom I just saw that it may be a value so that's why I pulled it out okay alright I just wanted to make sure cause I only saw one of some things I wanted to make sure that you knew there's only one of some things which you did confirm okay alright um as far as what he's going to do um you are the victim of the offense so he will be going to jail if you want to file charges yes okay there you go so he is going to jail for a uh theft of property 7:00 fifty to 25 okay okay the man was charged with theft of property and banned from the airport this wasn't improvised let's examine what the law authorizes and what it doesn't the charge theft of property under Texas Penal Code Section 31.03 property valued between 750 and 2 thousand five hundred dollars is a Class a misdemeanor up to one year in county jail fine not to exceed $4,000 the victim's estimate of $1,000 fits Officer Cons receives an a minus detention was lawful questioning was disciplined contacting the victim before arresting was the correct call the deduction failure to verbalize search authority on camera creates an unnecessary suppression risk Sean Tuan receives a d he was wearing the victim's watch at the time of contact his account did not survive a single phone call physical compliance throughout kept the grade from an F the conduct itself was deliberate Miss Sonia receives an a precise prompt and dispositif her corroboration of every material detail made the arrest legally unassailable four lessons from this encounter first verify before you arrest one phone call converted a disputed narrative into probable cause in property crimes the owner's confirmation or denial is often the single most decisive piece of evidence available second verbalize every search authority on camera what is not recorded does not protect you in court state the doctrine before you search consent Terry frisk or incident to arrest every time no exceptions third inconsistencies accumulate a fabricated story rarely fails on one point it collapses across many systematic cross referenced questioning keys the tile the watch the friendship built the case without confrontation fourth for the public possessing someone else's property and offering an unverifiable authorization story is not a defense Texas Penal Code Section 31.03 requires only that appropriation was unlawful and intent to deprive existed wearing the stolen item on your wrist during contact with police is powerful evidence of both elements let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic that you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more content on police court interactions