TRAVERSE CITY -- Chalk this arrest up to the kindness of strangers.
A teen who attempted to leave town after allegedly stealing his former adoptive mother's computer and cell phone was waylaid by a man who police said was homeless. The man believed the teen to be a runaway, so he borrowed a phone and called the mother, who called police.
"People who are homeless are sometimes considered to be abnormal, but here's an individual who had a big heart, knew the right thing to do and followed through with it," Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Oltersdorf said.
The male, 17, recently had been staying with the mother near Cedar. He arrived last week from California, where he last lived with the woman before he landed into trouble and became a ward of the state there, Oltersdorf said.
But the teen allegedly stole the phone and laptop computer and made his way to Traverse City with the intent of pawning the items and getting a bus ticket out of town, police said. He encountered the homeless man at a pawn shop Friday afternoon, and the man suspected the teen was a runaway because of his relatively young age.
"He made the determination that things didn't add up," Oltersdorf said.
The man asked to see the computer and found the mother's phone number on it, so he borrowed a phone and called her without the teen knowing. He told her he was homeless and filled her in on the situation, Leelanau County Sgt. Mike Lamb said.
She told him to keep the teen busy, so the man told the teen he'd help him get a bus ticket.
"He kept him at bay ... with the premise that he was going to help him get a bus ticket," Oltersdorf said.
The mother called police, and Grand Traverse sheriff's deputies eventually arrested the teen. They turned him over to Leelanau deputies, and he's now in custody at the Leelanau County jail.
Though the teen faces a felony charge of larceny in a building, the homeless man's actions means he'll be out of harm's way for the time being.
"The bottom line is this man's safe," Oltersdorf said. "He'll have three meals a day ... until some higher government authority decides what to do with him."
