GLEN BURNIE, Md. — After someone broke into this truck in Glen Burnie and stole two bags filled with power tools, the victim spotted his items on Facebook Marketplace and arranged to buy them.
Little did Rasheed Franklin know that the so-called buyers were undercover police, and he was arrested on the spot.
“The officers were able to determine that the suspect had a storage unit and subsequently executed a search warrant on that storage unit and also found additional stolen property,” said Cpl. Chris Anderson of the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
Ironically, we caught up with Franklin outside the storage facility, and he tells a very different story.
He claims police have the wrong man.
“Straight innocent,” Franklin told us, “Found two DeWalt bags in the woods behind Green Orchard Court over in Chesapeake Glen hidden behind trees in a brush of woods. I did not steal anybody’s stuff. Didn’t destroy anybody’s property. I just came off of a bond myself.”
A bond for allegedly rummaging through vehicles and stealing items before leading police on a foot chase behind a Walgreens store two months earlier.
Franklin says they got the wrong man in that case as well.
“Well, in June, if you didn’t do anything wrong, then why at the Walgreens did you run?” we asked.
“I have a warrant. I have a bench warrant for Howard County, because I failed to show up,” Franklin explained, “and I didn’t even steal in that case either.”
Police say the victim in Glen Burnie spotted his stolen tools online just six hours after they were taken—-a relatively short window for Franklin to discover them in the woods, stash them in his storage unit and list them for sale on the social media site, but then again, what’s not to believe about his story?
RELATED: Thief busted for trying to sell tools back to owner he allegedly stole them from
