One of the most recent notorious Outboard motor and fishing tackle thieves in Ontario is a man known as "Outboard Larry Pullstart". Pullstart stole more outboard motors than any other thief in the history of Canada. He was able to avoid getting caught because he was always careful.
Then one day Outboard Larry's luck ran out.
Several factors could be attributed to Outboard's bad luck that day.
The first was that a shore angler in the area of the outboard motor theft, which Outboard Larry was committing, happened to be taking photographs of the scenery and the license plate of the truck Pullstart was driving, later turned up in several of his snapshots, along with the outboards apparently being stolen.
The second factor was that the angler happened to later show the photo to his brother, a police officer in the Toronto police force. The same officer was aware of a certain large marina that had sustained a loss of several outboard motors on the very same day his shore angling brother had taken the photos.
The reason he had remembered the date was because it was his birthday - and the same day he happened to see Outboard Larry Pullstart driving a truckload of motors in another part of Toronto. He also remembered the license plate for a particular reason...the police officer's name was Jethro Randolph Bodeen, badge number 341, the license plate number was JRB 341.
A warrant was issued for Pullstart's arrest but, he seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
A description was e-mailed across Canada: male, white, 68 years, 225 lbs, grey hair, brown eyes, wears a baseball cap.
A few weeks later, Jethro happened to spot a man fitting the description in downtown Ottawa.
"We are looking fer a man who fit yer description for theft of Outboard motors in the Toronto area", said Jethro as he walked towards the man.
"Can't be me," replied the dude, " I've never been to Toronto. I'm from California. As a matter of fact, I personally know, John Wayne and his parents. I used to mow Mr and Mrs Wayne's lawn for 10 cents when I was just a kid."
"I don't beleive yer from California at all", said Jethro.
Why did Jethro say that?