Key to the defense was locating the tall, gaunt man sporting a maroon Basque-style beret who had allegedly been in the convenience store at the time of the robbery. That man was said to have witnessed the three teenagers hassling the cashier just after ten pm, forcing him to hand over the few bills in the register, threatening to return and cause havoc to the place if he called the police, before escaping down the windswept street.
If the tall man could be located, he could identify the teenagers, who hadn’t bothered to wear masks or disguise themselves, and should therefore be easy to identify. The cashier couldn’t give the police any clues as to where they had come from, and where they were going, their pockets full of his evening’s hard-earned revenues.
But the man with the beret had seen everything. At least, according to Philip, who had been loitering outside when the teenagers robbed the store.
Philip, who planned to purchase a pack of cigarettes, claimed the man had been standing at the back when the teenagers rushed in. The man came down the aisle but did nothing to stop the teenagers or protect the cashier, Philip said. The cashier had raised his hands in defense even before the youths announced their intention to rob the establishment. But, as Philip tried to explain, the tall man could certainly pick out the boys in a lineup.
That’s what Philip told the police officers who arrived at the scene twenty minutes later, but they didn’t believe him.
“I recognize him,” the cashier said when the police dragged Philip into the store and asked if he was one of the perpetrators.
“Of course you recognize me,” Philip protested. “I come here all the time for smokes!” But the cashier’s statement was enough to convince the officers. They handcuffed him, read him his rights, and dragged him towards their squad car.
“There was a man who saw it all!” Philip cried. “He was wearing a funny hat!”
The cashier shook his head, and one of the officers tightened his grip on Philip’s arm.
If the police would just talk to that man, he would clear up this misunderstanding, Philip thought. “It wasn’t me!” he pleaded.
The cashier stood at the store entrance, gazing at the flashing lights as the police car pulled away from the curb.
Luckily, Philip’s brother-in-law was a lawyer. After Philip’s one allotted phone call, his brother-in-law would come down to the station, talk to the officers, meet the judge, and get Philip released on his own recognizance.
As Philip lingered in the dark holding cell, the threat of jail time over his head, he prayed that the tall man with the funny hat would come forward on his own to report what he had witnessed. Philip was innocent! Locating that man was the key to Philip’s defense.