Providence, Rhode Island Officer Arrested For Theft — Of Coupons

A police officer was arrested in Providence, Rhode Island, for an unusual crime. It appears that Jesse Ferrell, 49, had been helping himself to something most of us get for free.

Often enough, when we get newspapers delivered on our front porch or purchased at the front of some retail stores, they come with inserts. These inserts include advertisements for local businesses, as well as coupons for items you might buy every day at your local grocery store. Crafty consumers have figured out how to manipulate coupons and store sales to stock up on food at a major discount.

In some cases, the combination of a special deal and a coupon might actually end up with the store giving you money to take the product home. There are even groups dedicated to trading coupons and giving everyone involved an extra edge with their monthly shopping. Coupons are a great way of legally saving money on what you were going to buy anyway, or stock up on what you think you might use later.

According to Commander Thomas Oates, 19-year veteran police officer Ferrell was arrested for attempting to break into a facility at 135 Harris Avenue and grab coupons and inserts from newspapers before they could be delivered. Members of the Providence Police Office of Professional Responsibility caught him in the attempt during an undercover sting. Oates has said that there is a market for newspaper inserts, but it’s unclear if Ferrell was involved in it.

Allegedly, Jesse Ferrell had been doing this for a while. Two weeks ago, the Rhode Island Police had gotten complaints from Distribution Services of Rhode Island that many of the inserts that employees were paid to include in the Providence Journal had gone missing.

“The complaint they had was they had materials there that are placed into the newspapers as part of the home distribution [like] coupons, inserts, and fliers that [were] being stolen. They realized this potentially had been going back four to six weeks, maybe longer.”

After discovering the results of the theft, authorities had set up surveillance on the site and witnessed Ferrell attempting to break into the facility on Friday morning. It is unknown why the officer arrested was doing this, or what he was doing with the newspaper inserts, but instead of saving money on groceries and other products, he has been suspended without pay.

Sergeant Bob Boehm, the president of the Providence Police Union, says that Ferrell was “a well-liked officer,” and it was “a surprise to us.” Jesse Ferrell hadn’t contacted the union for legal advice, despite the union being in place to defend officers wrongfully arrested for crimes, even minor ones like this.

Jesse Ferrell has been arrested for breaking and entering and larceny, and has been released on $10,000 personal recognizance. He will be expected to appear in court this July for the pre-trial hearing.

Attempts to call Ferrell for follow-up statements have gone unanswered.

Providence police officer arrested, accused of stealing coupons from newspapers – Turn to 10 https://t.co/IhCKtwmbD0 #PoliceNews

— Emergency Traffic (@Police_Dispatch) April 23, 2016

Thankfully Ferrell’s crime wasn’t as severe as that of Florida officer Daniel Rush. Rush was the co-founder of a mentoring organization and had been accused of molesting two teenage boys. This was ironic, due to the organization being called Men of Virtue & Ethics. He was caught after a 13-year-old wrote a note to a parishioner about “sexual misconduct” during church services.

The teen had attempted to tell the parishioner to keep it quiet, possibly fearing the consequences of his tattling. It didn’t work, and Rush was arrested.

Jesse Ferrell, the officer arrested in Rhode Island, had only stolen newspaper inserts from a facility, and his consequences are understandably lighter. It’s still unknown why he risked what he did to steal coupons.

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