a pat down like any other or that's what it looked like until the questions turned towards something no one expected to find here take everything out of your pockets turn them inside out you have anything in your underwear anything in your bra okay what's the blue thing that's in your bra it's Vaseline okay nothing else though okay two people two very different versions of the same locker did he take it out or did you take it out he took it he says you took it I didn't take it OK on May 11th, 2021 park security at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida flagged an unsecured locker on camera the suspect's own words on this footage were quote it's just free game and quote and that claim is exactly backwards under Florida law unfortunately they didn't close their locker all the way and from what I was told someone came took their stuff out of the locker and they left uh so they've been waiting to figure out what to do what is that m J V d 3 0 2 1 it was this area right here um both inside like we've locked everything out here because it's where we are okay so you decided right right okay they were just saying we've done the sweeps and everything that we had here right and we reenacted this did they see the person take the stuff out um he knows like I don't know I don't know what it is um'cause I'm gonna need one of you guys to start writing a statement um and the guest hasn't got off to the right right in a 5:30 you're gonna have to go to the bathroom and take a shower right after they came back to the locker and they left okay oh they came back to the locker oh the one that took the items came back to the locker and they had rented and then they left and they grabbed everything out of the locker supposedly from what they saw on the cameras yeah okay okay so I thought they weren't able to get the stuff out so what happened was two ladies uh find a locker I opened locker nine they put their stuff in uh when she walked away she didn't fully close it so it was left open uh a gentleman soon after came behind and then kind of scooped out so I was told you guys um put your stuff in the locker but didn't um fully secure it um so you I'm gonna need you guys to fill out this with the sentence the location will be locked in I'll see you later it was all in the locker so what is it go find for like this so guys they're gonna do their own investigation they're doing a report and all that um if you want I can also do one but if you're okay with just handling with them that's okay too yeah it's just up to you guys what you want to just handle deal with them sorry again did you want to do a police report as well or do you want to just do a report with universal I will also do a police report okay do you want to press charges if the guy is found like I want to know if the intention is like he really like oh there's something just open and then they went to lost and found or they are intentionally bringing the stuff like I want to know that and yeah I will first put a charge for that person first because I don't know his intention anyway or her so I would like to put a charge for now OK if if they really just at last they're going to lost and found then then it's totally fine right yeah we're not gonna know that until we talk to the guys so yeah awesome um thank you but you wanna do one with me as well yes please OK you're gonna have to fill out another statement you alright with that yes OK thank you just give me a did you have anything taken was it just the car keys so um her her driver license is also in there it's a Arizona State driver license no a a Washington state a Washington state driver license is in there OK and it's just really like my card which is a debit and credit which I just cut it like I mean like I just put it on hold already OK and can I ask where it's here where's the location here this is the so it's it's 6,000 universal Boulevard police department stop stop turn around put your hands behind your back no problem I'm just trying to leave the park sir I don't want no problem bend forward at the waist bend forward alright let's take this to somewhere else not in yep we want to sit you got any weapons on you put your feet what do you have in here no it's not just your balls my balls man I'm telling you it's my balls okay what is this it's my balls no it's not what is this I don't know what you're grabbing I'm telling you I don't know what you're grabbing I'm gonna keep screwing around we can screw around I'm not screwing with you sir let's go somewhere where we're out of sight sir I don't I didn't know what you're grabbing there's a card in your nut sack there's a card there's a card in my nut sack OK yeah that's what I was grabbing not your balls I can tell the difference my balls sir just stay with me I promise you I'm not I'm not trying to OK stop trying to be a j*ckass what is in there there's a card in there what kind of card debit card OK why do you have it in your balls I just had it on me what I just rode the ride I didn't want everything to fall out you just stick you always stick your your credit card in your balls no sir it's loose in my pocket I haven't done anything wrong can I call the officer 4:40 hey do we have the City Walk officer coming down here too um I'm not I'm not 100% sure can you check on that for me Daniel can you find out Daniel can you find Daniel can you find out anything about the City Walk subway can you find out the City Walk subway I love you babe I don't know I don't know I just wanted to leave I don't know why ma'am ma'am ma'am is that my I love you babe it's alright I'm gonna fix these cuffs I'm gonna fix these cuffs hey I apologize I wasn't trying to be rude to y'all or nothing you just you made me uncomfortable so I want to leave the park now I understand I'm not I'm not trying to be rude to you hey bro thank you I don't know man we were surrounded by six people I don't know why you know there's cameras all over this park right there 26 minutes ago explain everything to you in a minute I was trying to get you out of the custody of the guest room yeah I'm sorry like I said I honestly wasn't trying to give you problems I just thought I should leave cause I you know what I mean you want me to sit with you sure that's fine you're still over here not right over here okay so where was that um she she had it she had it like on her or this was in her pocket and she was holding it when son you tackled him you took that from her so she didn't run with it okay hey what's up I don't know if I don't know if I don't think I dealt with you earlier but you have a police report yeah OK yeah I was the one that OK I wasn't sure I could I wasn't sure yeah but yeah so here's the gentleman in that picture OK that's the girl it was with she's the one that had the water on her yep he probably has the content somewhere he has a wallet full of cash so it's gonna be uh felony 56 okay just gotta figure out exactly I'm putting on both of them or what but okay go ahead and stand up for me 51 53 10 14 alright you want me to take this out I'm gonna take everything out of your pockets and you're gonna take the card that's in your underwear take the card out of your underwear can you update the 10:20 cause I'm sorry for the courtesy ride the ODB 10 grand in the mileage one 98 everything that you got on you that's everything sir face away from me again that's fine thank you put your feet alright Eagle 5 1 10:50 have a seat 4 tag India x 3 5 4 is there a separate room we can put her in it's fine has anybody we had any females check her yet no are they able to do that here take everything out of your pockets turn them inside out you have anything in your underwear anything in your bra okay what's the blue thing that's in your bra it's Vaseline okay nothing else though okay just put everything on the counter for me and follow her I mean JB can you send me India 5 6 4 I'll give you one he probably has the money somewhere else yeah they're both back here Watson you want her number yeah whatever happens you already know I love you I don't know I don't know why the cops are involved in it so what brings you to universal today I'm on vacation vacation OK I'm gonna read something to you you are being detained for a criminal investigation okay I'm gonna read something to you this just allows me to talk to you this doesn't mean you are going to jail it just allows me to ask some of the questions that I wanna ask okay so I'm gonna read you a bunch of stuff here Florida Statute Section 8 12.014 defines theft as knowingly obtaining another person's property with intent to deprive them of it nothing in that statute carves out an exception for property a suspect personally believes was abandoned the moment he confirmed with his girlfriend that the bag was not hers then kept a card from inside it the statute's elements were already satisfied his belief that an unlocked locker makes the contents fair game is a myth not a defense given the combined value of the cash the identification and the vehicle keys recovered this pushes past the 750 dollar threshold that threshold matters because it is what separates a misdemeanor petit theft from a third degree felony grand theft charge a second legal problem surfaces the moment the officer moves the suspect out of public view for a pat down he is heard asking what is concealed in the suspect's waistband and ultimately retrieves a card from that area under Terry versus Ohio from 1968 a pat down during a detention is justified only to check for weapons The Supreme Court sharpened that limit in Minnesota v. Dickerson in 1993 Dickerson holds that once an officer confirms an object is not a weapon further manipulation or search for evidence goes too far a thin card in someone's underwear is not shaped like a weapon and cannot reasonably be mistaken for one nothing on this footage shows consent given an arrest already made or independent probable cause established first without one of those three things this search sits in a legally uncomfortable space beyond a standard weapons frisk that does not necessarily void the case but it is exactly the kind of detail a defense attorney would move to suppress the third legal issue is how the officer framed the detention itself before asking any questions he tells both suspects almost word for word that they are being detained for a criminal investigation and that this does not mean they are going to jail that distinction comes directly from Berkemer v. McCarty decided in 1984 Berkimer separates a brief investigative stop which does not require Miranda warnings from a full custodial arrest which does by clearly explaining that distinction out loud the officer gave himself a much stronger legal footing for the yes or no questions that followed that single explanation is arguably the most legally sound moment in the entire encounter you're gonna answer me with yes or no okay did you take the rip ride rocket today daddy what did you ride the rip ride rocket today I don't know I honestly don't know what that is the big Red roller coaster no no were you over there today yes sir it was a long line so I left to come back okay were you in the locker area today yeah I put my stuff in the locker and I went got in line and the line was taking forever so I went got my stuff out the locker and left okay you wanna tell me what else happened in the locker room keep in mind I'm asking you some questions right now I mean I you already know the answer to the question right sir I'm not trying to sit here and lie to you okay that be that's the preferred there was a bag there uh huh I it was it was in the I hit the locker thing cause you scan your card uh huh it opens the locker for you uh huh okay when I open this locker uh huh there's a bag in it what what color bag it wasn't dark it was light color okay okay put my stuff in there went on about my business went to go get in line on the ride uh huh I come back the bag still in there alright I asked my I knew it wasn't my girlfriend so I was like hey is this your bag she's like no and then she grabbed the bag and we went to the bathroom because we were sick of waiting in line we had to go take a piss so we grabbed she grabbed the bag we went to the bathroom we went pissed saw what was in the bag you see what it is man I left the bag in the bathroom and that's the card okay I didn't I didn't take nothing from anybody and I wasn't trying to see it was just it was in it was in the locker but you saw you saw something that didn't belong to you you confirmed with your girlfriend that it didn't belong to her and you took it well she I mean sir I'm telling you the truth she took it I'm not trying to get myself out of trouble enough she took the bag she took the bag okay obviously those were in my possession yeah I I made I'm are we able to go to the locker or the uh bathroom rather and um he's going right now Daniel's going right now to the men's room or the women's room it was a family restroom rich which cash in here is not yours all the hundreds are mine um OK the ones are yours yep alright sir so the fives so sir I'm being upfront with you I've lied to you about what's happened today could you please pay me the same respect am I going to jail today well I'm I'm still trying to figure that out right now we got to figure out exactly what you took and what your girl took well um but I will tell you there's a felony amount of stuff that you guys took especially that that BMW key which was is that still in the bag I don't think there's a BMW key is that still in the bag I I didn't see nobody I'm telling you the truth I didn't see nobody I I I didn't well I appreciate your candor just hang out with him for a second and talk to her yeah that's fine alright ma'am you are being detained right now for a criminal investigation so that being said I gotta read you a couple of things okay just so I can talk to you this does not mean you're going to jail this just means I can ask the questions that I wanna ask okay I'm gonna have you answer me with a yes or no to the following questions so what brought you guys to universal today just came to g*ddamn for vacation okay did you guys go on the rip ride rocket today big red roller coaster no no were you over at the lockers today yes okay so what happened over at the lockers we were gonna go and then it was crazy and we left okay so we went elsewhere okay so what else happened at the lockers keep in mind I'm not asking you a whole lot of questions I don't already know the answer to that he didn't already tell me I'm just trying to see if you're gonna lie about it it was craziness and the whole locker thing and then we left so miss Hamilton you're leaving out some important details here well I he tried to do the locker thing and you know I was just standing there and do his locker thing and that we're going for a ride and then we left he said we're gonna go sh*t and then let me show you something real quick okay we went keep in mind there's cameras all over the place yeah he said he found a a bag he said he found a bag okay so what about elaborate on the bag and after that I went to the restroom and um I guess he had the credit card and that's it you you gotta keep you're not you're not telling me the whole truth you're telling me bits and pieces cause he found a bag in a locker he found a bag in a locker did he take it out or did you take it out he took it he says you took it I didn't take it OK I didn't take it sir cause I didn't even have what's that I didn't even open the locker so why were the how did you get those BMW keys what BMW keys the ones that were in your purse I don't have a BMW I don't even have a purse then your little wallet here they were in that wallet this is all I have is that where the BMW keys are I don't have any keys in the plastic bag in the brown bag OK OK so he took the bag out and then you went to the bathroom yes okay did he go with you to the bathroom yes and what did you guys do in the bathroom I I went to the restroom and he went through the purse and that was it okay so you had nothing to do with any of this I didn't I didn't take it he didn't I didn't take it I didn't know he even had it he saw it and he took it we have access to the cameras here alright I'll take a look at those there is also a third party whose role deserves scrutiny here Universal's own loss prevention and security staff they reviewed internal camera footage identified the suspect and effectively built the probable cause the responding officer relied on that kind of private surveillance evidence is normally admissible but it still has to survive authentication and chain of custody scrutiny in court if park security cannot produce a clear unaltered copy of that footage the identification supporting this entire stop weakens considerably alright anything else you wanna tell me I mean I he just said let's go and I left and that was it OK I don't have any keys or anything okay step up for me and I have you go back in that room found my stuff just leave it there for now alright just go back to that first bench that you're sat at this was the guest wallet which was found on her oh it was on her OK was this the only possession of that one of the guest that was OK the the purse that had the other stuff like the keys the earbuds all the other that was that was left behind in the bathroom in the family bathroom was turned into lost and found that's already been given back to the guest that had the keys in it this is the only thing that was not in the bag at the time that we recovered it OK which she had got you so where did this come from the bag okay so why did you tell me that you didn't take anything I didn't take I didn't take anything and that was he handed it to me and you know it didn't belong to you you know it didn't belong to him well it was empty and I just saw it I just I just stuck it stuck it in my waistband that's all sir it was empty did he empty it I don't know I didn't I don't know sir may I say something to you just hang tight what's up you know I don't I don't want to justify our actions and try to sit here and act like what I did today was not wrong in some form but our intentions were never to steal or take anything from anybody we we found something and my my frame of mind whether I'm I'm right or wrong for it it was an abandoned item I abandoned item in a locker yes yes sir it was it was I I scanned the thing and it opened the locker to put my belongings in it and something that I mean and you saw that the locker was open it opened with my card cause it's supposed to get open with my card I go to get my stuff but and like I said I'm not trying to justify what I did today sir I just never so if your intention wasn't to steal the stuff then what was your intention well I didn't I didn't feel like I was taking from someone cause it was just sitting there and I looked at it it's just stuff for grabs someone puts their stuff in the locker maybe they forgot to close it and it's just free game I'm wrong sir I'm not trying to judge so you understand that it is theft if if it is that it is but I can sit here and tell you that's honestly not how I saw it when I did what I did you know it is what it is I apologize but I wasn't I wasn't trying to steal from anybody that's true but I'm wrong I'm not trying to justify what I did all right now for how each party grades out the responding officer earns a B the investigative detention advisement was accurate timely and clearly communicated but the waistband search conducted without a documented independent legal basis is a real Fourth Amendment vulnerability in this case the male suspect earns a C minus his own account of confirming the bag was not his girlfriend's then keeping property from it meets Florida's theft elements directly his initial denial that he had taken anything reversed only once the card was found also damages his credibility the female suspect earns a C plus her account conflicts with her boyfriend's more detailed narrative of jointly examining the bag's contents but no additional contraband was found on her and she never physically resisted the detention or search Universal Security team earns a B+ their internal sweep and camera review gave police a solid evidentiary starting point their only weakness is one this footage cannot fully answer whether that footage will hold up as properly authenticated evidence later thanks I won't I won't we'll work with you OK is that good I didn't do anything you got it OK I'm sorry I can't hear you just speak up a little bit which one which side which side can you twist your you should be able to twist your arms can you twist your arms yeah OK just sit tight while I double lock them hold on hold on hold on don't go anywhere cause if if if they don't double lock then they're gonna get tighter on you okay so I don't want that to happen I have a seat for me okay I think I know what you're saying to this mom just have a seat have a seat thank you all right we're good you wanna go grab your car thanks mom I have the bail money I don't have anyone tell her sit down ma'am ma'am thank you so much yes I have mom I have tell her the whole system in the hotel room Holly mom you gotta be f*cking kidding me right now so you have to understand that's not our decision that's their decision okay yep so if a private security team hands police a camera clip and a name is that enough to justify what happens next three takeaways from this case first once an officer confirms an object in a pat down is not a weapon continuing to dig for evidence needs its own separate legal justification second believing a locker or bag looks abandoned does not erase the legal requirement to return property to its rightful owner third an investigative detention is not an arrest but anything said during it can still be used so knowing that distinction changes how a person should respond 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