15 minutes of fame
A married couple from California who went onto a TV chat show to boast of how they fenced stolen Lego on Ebay will now be watching the TV from the confines of their prison cells.
Matthew and Laura Eaton appeared on a TV chat show, "The Doctor Phil Show", and boasted of how they were making £3,500 a week from fencing "hundreds of boxes of Lego toys" on Ebay. The pair reckoned they had amassed around a million dollars worth of stolen goods over the last seven years. "We’re professional shoplifters. We’re the most successful shoplifters on the West Coast", said Laura Eaton. They even let a camera crew accompany them on one of their carefully planned shoplifting expeditions on which they take their three small children to use as a distraction when necessary.
Not surprisingly, the police took an interest in the show, although it took them a further year to build a solid case against the Eatons, eventually charging them with conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines. At this month's trial, Matthew Eaton was sentenced to 27 months in jail, and his wife to 12 months.
Did the Eatons think the police don't watch TV? Did they think that confessing on TV entitled them to some sort of immunity? Incredibly, the Eaton's attorney complained to the judge that her clients had "contacted the Dr Phil show with the hope of getting help with their financial situation, but came away with just three books signed by Phil McGraw, the host of the show".
For a transcript of the Dr Phil show, see:
drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/4784/
26th March 2010