Fortune Cookies Not So Fortunate for Robber

First posted on 03-10-2008

Tulsa police made good use of fortune cookies to make an arrest late last week after a pair of Chinese restaurant break-ins.

Terrence Middleton, age 30, was booked on charges of second-degree burglary and attempted second-degree burglary after police found him with $20 in coins in his pocket … along with the fortune cookies. The cookies provided a link to one of the robberies because they matched the kind being used at one of the restaurants Middleton allegedly hit.

A burglar alarm went off at the Chinese Chef Restaurant, then another sounded just 14 minutes later at the Asian Express, a few doors down. Officers arrived to find that both restaurants’ front doors had been broken. The cash register at the Asian Express had been broken into.

Moments later, officers stopped Middleton who they say dropped several coins and a prison identification card.

Officers said that nothing appeared to have gone missing from the Chinese Chef Restaurant, and only the twenty bucks and the cookies were taken from the Asian Express.

Middleton is being held on a bond of $15,000.