In news nearly as unsurprising as Kim Kardashians lost virginity, Cam Clear was selling the items he allegedly stole from several residents of Gibbs Hall. However, that he was (allegedly) doing so via online ads (read: Craigslist) is equally unsurprising, but somewhat amusing. From the KNS article: By listing them online, Clear not only gave the police a veritable inventory of the items he had stolen, but also the means to positively trace them directly to him via the contact information contained in the ad (i.e. his cell phone). The timeline of events as laid out in the article is inverted, making it difficult to easily discern that the theft reported by both Palardy and Rodgers was a full month before the most recent events which ultimately lead to Clear's arrest. Here's a rough break-down of the actual linear timeline of events (all taken from the KNS article): March 11th "Campbell, a former standout at Fulton High School, filed a police report on March 11 after his Toshiba laptop valued at $500 went missing from his room." April 19th "UT football players Da'Rick Rogers and Michael Palardy contacted police. In a seven-hour span, Rogers told police his MacBook Pro valued at $1,300 was taken from his room and Palardy said his MacBook Pro valued at $1,840 vanished along with a computer charger." May 19th "The property in the affidavit coincides with 10 of 12 items included on a theft report filed on May 19 by five UT baseball players as well as a missing laptop reported by Galen Campbell, a walk-on member of last season's UT men's basketball team." May 22nd Clear is arrested. I guess it's a good thing that Clear attempted to access the UTK WiFi system because seemingly, had he not done so, he never would have been suspected as being a perpetrator of the crime(s) - which as of the date of his arrest, had been happening with regularity for nearly 2.5 months (from Campbell's report on March 11th to his arrest on May 22nd). That misstep would certainly explain why UTPD / KPD was able to quickly apprehend him only two days after the May 19th report, whereas conversely, a month of inactivity had elapsed since Palardy and Rodgers reported the same. It's too bad that no one had any idea as to the suspect before May 22nd.....or took the time to do a quick Craigslist search for Campbell / Palardy / Rodgers' property......or, if they did search online and found that someone was attempting to sell the property which had recently been stolen from them, that they took note of the contact information of the seller, and relayed that information to someone in a position of more influence and authority. Because, ostensibly, had they done so, that person could have acted upon said information with swift certainty, and thus prevented the subsequent burglaries and further victimization of other student-athletes, a month later. If only someone had pieced it all together and got that information into the right hands, a lot of this could be avoided. Of course, this is nothing more than mere hypothesizing, as events clearly did not unfold this way at all. Take it as you will. Link to KNS article: UTPD: Cameron Clear was selling stolen items ยป GoVolsXtra P.S. - While still early, Quinn, the new guy at KNS seems just as solid as some of you have suggested that he would be, when it was learned that he had been hired. I won't insult him with any comparison to Griff, as none can be reasonably made, insofar as I can tell. That sports dept. is in desperate need of someone with his potential, and has been for an incredibly long time.
Very nice breakdown, TD. Should be plastered on every Vol forum. Probably worth making it a blog, too.
Brendan Quinn is too good for KNS. He'll actually ask tough questions. It'll be no more than two years before he moves on to a legitimate market.
He worked in Philadelphia when I met him. He moved on to Chris Dortch's Chattanooga based website and covered the SEC for Basketball Times.
