Latest / Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries / The Roofman: The McDonald’s Robber Who Escaped Prison and Lived in Toys “R” Us | Jeffrey Manchester

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The Roofman: The McDonald’s Robber Who Escaped Prison and Lived in Toys “R” Us | Jeffrey Manchester · Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries

0:07
Speaker 1: Welcome to Cat Has Questions. Curiosity, stories, and the strange
0:12
Speaker 1: corners of everyday life. Hello, hello. I'm Cat. Welcome back
0:22
Speaker 1: to Cat Has Questions. So, this week we're doing something
0:27
Speaker 1: a little different. It's still a true crime story. and
0:31
Speaker 1: there are absolutely real victims involved. But compared to some
0:36
Speaker 1: of the cases we cover here, this one's a little
0:39
Speaker 1: bit more fun. Because today we have an escaped prisoner,
0:46
Speaker 1: a secret apartment inside an abandoned circuit city, and a
0:50
Speaker 1: grown man riding bicycles through Toys R Us after hours.
0:55
Speaker 1: An entire fake government career, a church romance, and one
1:00
Speaker 1: of the most unfortunately appropriate DVD choices ever discovered at
1:05
Speaker 1: a crime scene. So, we have a lot to talk
1:08
Speaker 1: about today. This is the story of Jeffrey Manchester, better
1:13
Speaker 1: known as The Roof Man. In early 2005, a police
1:20
Speaker 1: officer walked through an abandoned circuit city in Charlotte, North Carolina.
1:26
Speaker 1: And if you weren't around when circuit cities existed... How
1:31
Speaker 1: would you describe that? Like Best Buy kind of? But
1:34
Speaker 1: like smaller scale and only technology? But in 2005, the
1:39
Speaker 1: store had been closed for months. And it was mostly empty.
1:42
Speaker 1: So Circuit City's around this time were closing in 2005.
1:46
Speaker 1: But this particular store was mostly empty. But something inside
1:51
Speaker 1: didn't look right. The building still had electricity. And yet
1:56
Speaker 1: one particular section was strangely dark. the officer walked closer
2:02
Speaker 1: and noticed what appeared to be part of the wall.
2:05
Speaker 1: Except it wasn't. It was a door. A homemade door
2:10
Speaker 1: that had been painted to blend into its surroundings. And
2:13
Speaker 1: behind it was a room. A very small room. There
2:17
Speaker 1: was a bed, Spider-Man bedding, a Superman poster, Yoda figures, DVDs,
2:25
Speaker 1: a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher. Someone was living there.
2:30
Speaker 1: Police would eventually find a fingerprint inside, and when they
2:34
Speaker 1: ran it, they got a match. Jeffrey Manchester, a convicted
2:39
Speaker 1: armed robber who had escaped from prison six months earlier.
2:43
Speaker 1: And somehow, during those six months, Manchester had not only
2:47
Speaker 1: managed to avoid police, he had secretly lived inside a
2:51
Speaker 1: Toys R Us, moved into this abandoned circuit city, joined
2:55
Speaker 1: a church, started going to Bible study, joined a gym...
2:59
Speaker 1: got some dental work done, made friends, and started dating
3:03
Speaker 1: a single mother of three. Gave toys to her children.
3:07
Speaker 1: Toys R Us makes sense. And convinced everyone around him
3:11
Speaker 1: that his name was John Zorn and that he worked
3:14
Speaker 1: for the federal government. Which would already be enough material
3:17
Speaker 1: for an entire episode. Except that's not even why Jeffrey
3:22
Speaker 1: Manchester originally went to prison. Because before all of this,
3:27
Speaker 1: Law enforcement agencies across the country had spent years trying
3:31
Speaker 1: to identify a mysterious man who kept breaking into McDonald's
3:35
Speaker 1: restaurants through the roof. And somehow, this story only gets
3:41
Speaker 1: weirder from here. So he would literally, like, propel himself
3:45
Speaker 1: down into McDonald's. The hidden room and Manchester's double life
3:51
Speaker 1: were documented by investigators and later reporting online. Manchester himself
3:55
Speaker 1: has also described this Toys R Us period in detail
3:59
Speaker 1: in a 2026 prison interview. So let's go back. Who
4:04
Speaker 1: is the roof man? So for this, we're going back
4:07
Speaker 1: to 1998. Because at this point, nobody knows the name
4:11
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Manchester. Police just know that someone is robbing businesses
4:15
Speaker 1: in a very specific and extremely strange way. Usually the
4:19
Speaker 1: target is McDonald's. And the robber doesn't come through the
4:23
Speaker 1: front door. He doesn't smash a window. He doesn't wait
4:26
Speaker 1: in the parking lot for somebody to leave. He gets
4:29
Speaker 1: on the roof. He brings his power tools with him,
4:32
Speaker 1: his saws, drills, sometimes even an axe, which is a
4:35
Speaker 1: little terrifying, and cuts an opening roughly two feet by
4:39
Speaker 1: two feet. Then he lowers himself through the hole, sometimes
4:43
Speaker 1: dropping a pretty significant distance onto the floor below. And
4:47
Speaker 1: once inside, he waits. usually waiting for the opening employees
4:51
Speaker 1: to arrive. And just imagine this from their perspective for
4:53
Speaker 1: a second. It's five in the morning. You're tired and
4:57
Speaker 1: you're opening McDonald's. The doors are locked when you arrive
5:01
Speaker 1: and you assume the building is empty and nothing seems weird.
5:04
Speaker 1: And then suddenly a masked man with a gun appears
5:07
Speaker 1: from somewhere inside the restaurant. He orders the employees to
5:11
Speaker 1: open the safe and hand over the money. Then when
5:14
Speaker 1: he's ready to leave, he usually puts everyone into the
5:16
Speaker 1: walk-in cooler and And then this is where the roofman
5:20
Speaker 1: reputation started getting weird. Because victims kept describing him as polite.
5:27
Speaker 1: Extremely polite. He'd say please, he'd say thank you, he
5:30
Speaker 1: would apologize to them. According to accounts from the robberies,
5:34
Speaker 1: he sometimes told employees to get their jackets before locking
5:37
Speaker 1: them inside the cooler. Like he is being a gentleman
5:40
Speaker 1: about it. One victim remembered him repeatedly saying things like essentially,
5:45
Speaker 1: would you please get on the floor? which is such
5:48
Speaker 1: a bizarre combination of words when they're literally being held
5:51
Speaker 1: at gunpoint. And sometimes he even reportedly joked with the victims.
5:56
Speaker 1: At least one investigator said Manchester sometimes told employees to
6:01
Speaker 1: look on the bright side because they probably would get
6:03
Speaker 1: the rest of the day off, which, like, fair. So,
6:08
Speaker 1: just not your typical robber. And after leaving, according to
6:12
Speaker 1: contemporary reporting, he sometimes called police himself So they would
6:17
Speaker 1: come and like let employees out of the cooler. So
6:20
Speaker 1: clearly he wasn't trying to like harm anybody. So the
6:24
Speaker 1: newspapers actually started coining him as the gentleman robber, the
6:27
Speaker 1: polite thief. One newspaper wrote that he had developed a
6:31
Speaker 1: coast-to-coast reputation as possibly the most courteous thief in America.
6:37
Speaker 1: And I do understand why that became part of the story.
6:40
Speaker 1: Because objectively... please put your coat on before I lock
6:43
Speaker 1: you in the freezer, is not typical armed robbery talk.
6:49
Speaker 1: But the polite reputation has also softened this story a
6:52
Speaker 1: lot over the years. Because Manchester was not harmless. Contemporary
6:58
Speaker 1: reporting says that during some robberies, he fired a semi-automatic
7:03
Speaker 1: handgun into walls to demonstrate that he was serious. He's
7:07
Speaker 1: also reportedly shot a telephone so employees couldn't call police.
7:12
Speaker 1: And during another robbery, he fired through a glass door
7:15
Speaker 1: while escaping. And in one Sacramento-area McDonald's, an employee surprised
7:20
Speaker 1: Manchester and hit him in the head with a bucket.
7:23
Speaker 1: And Manchester responded by pistol-whipping the employee. The employee wasn't
7:27
Speaker 1: seriously injured, but still. I just have to put it
7:29
Speaker 1: out there that, yes, it's kind of funny and harmless
7:33
Speaker 1: in a way, but, like, I'm sure some of these
7:35
Speaker 1: people are still traumatized by being held up at gunpoint
7:38
Speaker 1: while at work. So pistol-whipping someone, though, is a pretty
7:41
Speaker 1: significant footnote to the whole, quote, gentleman-robber thing. Decades later,
7:46
Speaker 1: one of the North Carolina McDonald's managers, who Manchester held
7:50
Speaker 1: at gunpoint, still remembered the barrel of his weapon being
7:53
Speaker 1: pressed into her back. She also remembered worrying about a
7:56
Speaker 1: 78-year-old employee who worked there and what the stress of
7:59
Speaker 1: the robbery could do to her. When the Roofman movie
8:02
Speaker 1: came out, so they obviously made this story into a
8:05
Speaker 1: movie with Channing Tatum playing the main character... But that
8:11
Speaker 1: former manager told the Charlotte Observer very plainly, to her,
8:15
Speaker 1: this is a story about a bad guy. So I'm
8:18
Speaker 1: definitely going to be making fun of Jeffrey Manchester a
8:20
Speaker 1: lot in this episode because some of the things this
8:23
Speaker 1: man does are objectively ridiculous. But I'm not going to
8:26
Speaker 1: make fun of what happened to the employees. They didn't
8:30
Speaker 1: know Jeffrey Manchester considered himself a nice robber. They saw
8:34
Speaker 1: a man with a weapon. They had no idea what
8:36
Speaker 1: he was going to do. And that matters. But Back
8:40
Speaker 1: in the late 1990s, police had a completely different problem.
8:44
Speaker 1: They couldn't catch him. So he was pretty much robbing
8:47
Speaker 1: for like two years. So from November of 1998 into 2000,
8:52
Speaker 1: the Roofman robberies started piling up. And he was everywhere. California, Oregon, Nevada, Minnesota, Maryland, Virginia,
9:02
Speaker 1: North Carolina, Massachusetts. By April of 2000, investigators had linked
9:07
Speaker 1: the mysterious robber to 38 robberies in nine states. Later
9:12
Speaker 1: estimates would put his total above 40. Most involved McDonald's restaurants,
9:18
Speaker 1: although he did hit other businesses, including Burger King, Blockbuster,
9:24
Speaker 1: another throwback like Circuit City, this is certainly the 90s
9:27
Speaker 1: and early 2000s, grocery stores, a home base, and foreshadowing here,
9:33
Speaker 1: a Toys R Us. Police estimated that he had taken
9:38
Speaker 1: around $ 100, 000, and investigators were starting to form a picture
9:42
Speaker 1: of the person they were chasing. He was athletic, very athletic,
9:47
Speaker 1: because dropping through a ceiling and hitting the floor without
9:49
Speaker 1: injuring yourself is apparently not something most people can do.
9:54
Speaker 1: Who knew? He was fast. He remained calm when things
9:58
Speaker 1: were wrong. He knew how to use weapons. He planned carefully.
10:03
Speaker 1: And investigators started wondering whether their guy might have military training.
10:09
Speaker 1: There were also some failed attempts. And these are my
10:12
Speaker 1: favorite part of the original spree because Manchester was obviously
10:16
Speaker 1: very skilled at what he was doing, but he was
10:18
Speaker 1: still cutting random holes into buildings. And sometimes police found
10:22
Speaker 1: partially drilled holes where he had apparently abandoned the plant.
10:25
Speaker 1: He'd cut through roof and then discover that the thing
10:28
Speaker 1: directly underneath the hole, he couldn't get in there, like
10:31
Speaker 1: a freezer, for example. Which feels like information you probably
10:35
Speaker 1: would have wanted before completing the sawing portion of your evening.
10:39
Speaker 1: But possibly my favorite failed roofman robbery happened in Folsom, California.
10:45
Speaker 1: Manchester climbed onto a McDonald's cut into the roof, made
10:49
Speaker 1: his entrance, and discovered the restaurant was closed because it
10:52
Speaker 1: was Thanksgiving. So for all of the surveillance, planning, cutting
10:57
Speaker 1: through ceiling, propelling yourself into it, apparently nobody told him
11:02
Speaker 1: to check for holiday hours. Police almost caught him another
11:06
Speaker 1: time in Placerville. Officers spotted Manchester after a robbery, and
11:11
Speaker 1: he took off running, crossed four lanes of highway traffic,
11:14
Speaker 1: and managed to disappear. And because these crimes were spread
11:19
Speaker 1: across multiple jurisdictions in multiple states, so he like literally
11:22
Speaker 1: was from coast to coast. Every time law enforcement thought
11:26
Speaker 1: they were getting close, he could simply just move somewhere else.
11:31
Speaker 1: One investigator essentially said, you set up surveillance in one
11:34
Speaker 1: city and he just drives down the road or to
11:37
Speaker 1: another state. By the spring of 2000, there was a $ 10, 000
11:41
Speaker 1: reward for information leading to his arrest. There were even
11:45
Speaker 1: copycats using his rooftop technique. And still nobody knew who
11:49
Speaker 1: he was. Until Manchester made a trip to North Carolina.
11:55
Speaker 1: So on May 20, 2000, the roof man hit a
11:58
Speaker 1: McDonald's in Gastonia, North Carolina. It was 12.20 in the morning,
12:04
Speaker 1: same routine. Manchester cut a hole in the roof, dropped inside,
12:07
Speaker 1: pointed a gun at the manager, forced him to open
12:10
Speaker 1: the safe. put the employees into the walk-in cooler, and
12:13
Speaker 1: left with thousands of dollars. You might think that would
12:16
Speaker 1: be enough activity for one night. But Jeffrey did not
12:19
Speaker 1: agree with that. About five hours later, he targeted another
12:23
Speaker 1: McDonald's roughly 10 miles down the road. In Belmont. And
12:28
Speaker 1: this time, things did not go smoothly. Police responded. Manchester ran.
12:33
Speaker 1: And officers eventually found him hiding in tall grass. And reportedly,
12:38
Speaker 1: even when police finally captured him, Manchester remained extremely Manchester
12:43
Speaker 1: about it. He congratulated the officers on doing a good job.
12:48
Speaker 1: I'm sure that did not make them happy. But once
12:53
Speaker 1: he was in custody, investigators started comparing him with the
12:56
Speaker 1: mysterious roof man they had been chasing around the country.
12:59
Speaker 1: And everything lined up. His physical abilities, his movements, his
13:04
Speaker 1: access to transportation, weapons knowledge. his experience with heights, because
13:09
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Manchester was not just some random guy with a
13:13
Speaker 1: Home Depot rewards account. So he's not just dabbling in
13:15
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff. He had military training. Manchester had
13:19
Speaker 1: grown up in California and enlisted in the U.S. Army.
13:24
Speaker 1: He served with the 82nd Airborne Division. He had training
13:28
Speaker 1: involving weapons and parachuting. He married when he was young
13:31
Speaker 1: and had three children. Eventually, he moved into the Army
13:35
Speaker 1: Reserve and worked in California. And Manchester later said he
13:39
Speaker 1: had a good job, he had enough money. And this
13:42
Speaker 1: is important because one explanation that gets repeated in some
13:44
Speaker 1: versions of this story is that he started robbing businesses
13:48
Speaker 1: because he wanted to give his children a better life.
13:51
Speaker 1: Manchester himself uses that explanation. But in his 2026 interview,
13:56
Speaker 1: he immediately undercut that. He basically said, Yes, I wanted
14:01
Speaker 1: more for my kids, but I already had a good job.
14:03
Speaker 1: I was a sergeant. I was making plenty of money.
14:06
Speaker 1: I just wanted more. And you know what? I actually
14:09
Speaker 1: appreciate that distinction because it takes away some of the
14:13
Speaker 1: Robin Hood mythology here. This wasn't a starving father stealing
14:17
Speaker 1: bread to feed his kids. Manchester just liked the money.
14:20
Speaker 1: And apparently, eventually, he liked getting away with it too.
14:25
Speaker 1: His marriage actually began falling apart during this period. there
14:29
Speaker 1: had been a domestic disturbance at the family's military housing
14:33
Speaker 1: in 1999, and his wife ultimately filed for divorce and
14:36
Speaker 1: custody of their children. And some people like to say, oh,
14:41
Speaker 1: maybe the failing marriage is what caused him to kind
14:43
Speaker 1: of break and do all of this. But the Roofman
14:46
Speaker 1: robberies had already started before the divorce filings. So while
14:51
Speaker 1: the collapse of his personal life may have fueled what
14:54
Speaker 1: came later, it doesn't neatly explain why it started. Manchester
15:00
Speaker 1: was convicted over the North Carolina robberies and kidnapping charges
15:04
Speaker 1: connected with locking employees inside the cooler. Different reports summarize
15:08
Speaker 1: the original sentencing slightly different. But the bottom line was
15:12
Speaker 1: the same. He was going to prison for decades. Manchester
15:16
Speaker 1: was 28 years old, and his life as the roof
15:19
Speaker 1: man appeared to be over. And normally, this would be
15:23
Speaker 1: the point where I'd say, he went to prison. The end. Except,
15:28
Speaker 1: if this story ended there... I probably wouldn't be doing
15:30
Speaker 1: an episode about it, even though the Spider-Man roof man
15:34
Speaker 1: repelling himself from McDonald's is an interesting story. But Jeffrey
15:40
Speaker 1: Manchester went to prison. He just didn't stay there. Manchester's
15:44
Speaker 1: arrest and later account of his motive are documented by
15:48
Speaker 1: reporting in his 2026 WBTV interview. Manchester eventually ended up
15:53
Speaker 1: at Brown Creek Correctional Institution in North Carolina. And for
15:58
Speaker 1: about four years, he was apparently a model inmate. He
16:02
Speaker 1: followed the rules. He worked. He earned enough trust to
16:06
Speaker 1: receive a job in the prison's metal plant. Which, like,
16:09
Speaker 1: I'm not really surprised by this because if he's like
16:11
Speaker 1: this gentleman robber, there's nothing to make me think he's
16:16
Speaker 1: going to be this, like, terrible inmate. But being put
16:21
Speaker 1: in the prison's metal plant, in hindsight, perhaps, was not
16:26
Speaker 1: the ideal placement. Because while Manchester appeared to be settling
16:30
Speaker 1: into prison life, he was doing what Jeffrey Manchester does best.
16:34
Speaker 1: He was studying a system for weaknesses. In 2026, Manchester
16:39
Speaker 1: revealed something he said he had never publicly discussed before.
16:44
Speaker 1: Brown Creek was not the first prison he had thought
16:46
Speaker 1: about escaping. According to Manchester, at essentially every correctional facility
16:52
Speaker 1: where he had been housed, he had developed some kind
16:55
Speaker 1: of escape plan. He was constantly thinking... How would I
16:58
Speaker 1: get out of here? At Brown Creek, he finally found
17:02
Speaker 1: a plan he believed would work. Trucks moved in and
17:06
Speaker 1: out of the metal plant. Manchester had access to equipment
17:09
Speaker 1: because he worked there. He observed how the deliveries operated.
17:13
Speaker 1: And he eventually, I think this guy legitimately thinks he's Spider-Man.
17:18
Speaker 1: He eventually created a hiding place underneath one of the trucks.
17:24
Speaker 1: Earlier reporting described a black painted platform and materials designed
17:29
Speaker 1: to conceal him if someone looked underneath the vehicle. So,
17:34
Speaker 1: on June 15, 2004, Manchester crawled under an outgoing truck,
17:41
Speaker 1: positioned himself in the hiding spot, and rode out of
17:44
Speaker 1: the prison. That's it. That was the escape. He literally
17:47
Speaker 1: clung to the bottom of a truck like a squirrel
17:50
Speaker 1: and went out of prison. The man who had spent
17:54
Speaker 1: years entering businesses through places nobody expected left prison through
17:58
Speaker 1: a place nobody checked closely enough. He was free. Authorities
18:04
Speaker 1: initially thought Manchester might return to California because that's where
18:07
Speaker 1: his former wife and children were. His old life was there.
18:12
Speaker 1: In fact, he now says the months before he escaped,
18:15
Speaker 1: he had already figured out where he wanted to hide.
18:18
Speaker 1: He needed three things. Food, water, shelter. And someplace police
18:23
Speaker 1: would never think to look for him. Manchester remembered taking
18:27
Speaker 1: his children to Toys R Us. He'd also robbed a
18:29
Speaker 1: couple Toys R Uses, if you recall. And decided, that'll work.
18:34
Speaker 1: And I cannot emphasize enough that according to Jeffrey Manchester himself,
18:39
Speaker 1: the Toys R Us portion of this story was premeditated.
18:44
Speaker 1: This was not, oh no, I escaped from prison and
18:47
Speaker 1: where am I supposed to sleep tonight? He was allegedly
18:50
Speaker 1: sitting in prison thinking, you know where nobody looks for fugitives?
18:55
Speaker 1: Jeffrey the Giraffe's house. And annoyingly, he was right. Manchester
19:01
Speaker 1: escaped Brown Creek on June 15, 2004. And said in
19:06
Speaker 1: an interview that he had planned both the escape and
19:09
Speaker 1: the Toys R Us hideout in advance. So, Manchester made
19:15
Speaker 1: his way to Charlotte. This Toys R Us that he
19:18
Speaker 1: chose was on Independence Boulevard. And once he got inside,
19:22
Speaker 1: by propelling through the ceiling, classic roof man, Manchester created
19:27
Speaker 1: a concealed living area. He had a small mattress, an
19:31
Speaker 1: inflatable chair, posters, toys, and obviously food wasn't difficult to find.
19:38
Speaker 1: Although his options were not exactly Michelin starred, he wasn't
19:41
Speaker 1: even like at a grocery store. It was Toys R Us.
19:44
Speaker 1: And if you think about what Toys R Us has.
19:49
Speaker 1: It's candy and baby food and that's pretty much what
19:53
Speaker 1: he survived on for a while also can we talk
19:56
Speaker 1: about how this is every probably little kid's dream that
19:59
Speaker 1: he's living in a toys r us has toys and
20:02
Speaker 1: posters and all that but on the flip side think
20:04
Speaker 1: about how creepy that is knowing if like these people
20:06
Speaker 1: like aren't taking their kids to a toys r us
20:08
Speaker 1: And there's literally a man hiding and sleeping there. But
20:14
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of karma that you successfully escape prison,
20:18
Speaker 1: but then your dinner is literally baby food. He also
20:23
Speaker 1: started opening merchandise. Manchester set up baby monitors around the
20:27
Speaker 1: store and rigged it up so he could keep track
20:29
Speaker 1: of employees. He learned their routines. He watched who came
20:33
Speaker 1: in and out. He learned when different parts of the
20:36
Speaker 1: building were occupied. And he actually even reportedly gained access
20:40
Speaker 1: to scheduling information and may have been manipulating the employee's
20:44
Speaker 1: schedule to create opportunities for himself. So, like, when the
20:49
Speaker 1: store would close, he just would head on over to
20:51
Speaker 1: the computer, maybe cancel everybody's schedule so that nobody was
20:55
Speaker 1: coming in in the morning or whatever if he needed
20:57
Speaker 1: a little me time, I guess. But Toys R Us
21:02
Speaker 1: literally became Jeffrey Manchester's personal playground. He rode bicycles through
21:07
Speaker 1: the aisles. This is a grown-ass man. He played with toys.
21:10
Speaker 1: He exercised. Some accounts say he raced remote-controlled cars. There
21:16
Speaker 1: are even reports of him borrowing costumes from the store
21:19
Speaker 1: for entertainment, which, okay, that's scary if you think about it.
21:22
Speaker 1: If someone were to walk in and there's this grown-ass
21:24
Speaker 1: man wearing costumes, no thank you. Just imagine, though, being
21:28
Speaker 1: an employee and finding out about this afterward. You spent
21:31
Speaker 1: your entire shift thinking the store was normal. Meanwhile, there's
21:34
Speaker 1: actually a fully grown escaped felon somewhere in the building
21:37
Speaker 1: wearing a costume monitoring you through a baby monitor. No thanks.
21:44
Speaker 1: Manchester spent roughly his first month there, barely leaving the store.
21:48
Speaker 1: Then July 4th came around and he decided to venture outside.
21:53
Speaker 1: So he took a bicycle, obviously from the Toys R Us,
21:57
Speaker 1: and he rode to a grocery store because he wanted
21:59
Speaker 1: a newspaper. While he was there, a stranger looked at
22:02
Speaker 1: him and said something along the lines of, Do I
22:05
Speaker 1: know you? And Manchester immediately panicked. He asked whether the
22:10
Speaker 1: man knew him from the military, and the man said no.
22:13
Speaker 1: Manchester decided that there was a very good chance this
22:15
Speaker 1: person had recognized him from news coverage about his escape,
22:19
Speaker 1: so he left. And then basically went back inside into
22:22
Speaker 1: hiding in the Toys R Us for another month. Eventually,
22:26
Speaker 1: Manchester found keys in the manager's office that gave him
22:29
Speaker 1: access to the roof. which completely changed things. Now he
22:33
Speaker 1: had outside space. He had a little indoor and outdoor space.
22:37
Speaker 1: He could go onto the roof at night. He could exercise.
22:40
Speaker 1: He could listen to music on his Sony Discman, another throwback.
22:44
Speaker 1: He could look at the Charlotte skyline and just think.
22:48
Speaker 1: Manchester later described the rooftop as his own private playground,
22:52
Speaker 1: that nobody could touch him there. But also, is not
22:55
Speaker 1: the Toys R Us his whole playground, not just the roof?
22:57
Speaker 1: You literally are living in a toy store. I have
23:00
Speaker 1: to imagine that after successfully escaping prison and spending months
23:04
Speaker 1: living undetected inside a major retail store, Jeffrey Manchester's confidence
23:09
Speaker 1: was becoming a problem. He was starting to feel untouchable, which,
23:14
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, is a recurring theme. But as the holidays approached,
23:19
Speaker 1: Toys R Us was about to become much busier, more employees,
23:24
Speaker 1: more customers, more inventory, more opportunities to get caught. conveniently,
23:30
Speaker 1: immediately next door was an abandoned Circuit City. And of course,
23:34
Speaker 1: Manchester found a way to access it. And inside the
23:37
Speaker 1: vacant building, he created another hideout. So as I mentioned
23:40
Speaker 1: at the beginning, this Circuit City was a closed store,
23:44
Speaker 1: so people weren't coming in and out. There's nothing like that,
23:48
Speaker 1: similar to the Toys R Us. He had to keep
23:50
Speaker 1: track of employees and all that, but the Circuit City
23:53
Speaker 1: was closed, so no one's really coming and going from
23:55
Speaker 1: there at all. But in the Circuit City, in this hideout,
23:58
Speaker 1: this is the room that police eventually discovered behind the
24:02
Speaker 1: homemade door. It was only around four feet by 10 feet,
24:06
Speaker 1: so it was a very small room. Manchester had painted
24:09
Speaker 1: the walls. He created a sleeping area. He decorated. There
24:13
Speaker 1: were Spider-Man sheets. Are you a seven-year-old boy? A Superman poster.
24:19
Speaker 1: So this guy clearly thinks he's like a superhero. Yoda figures, DVDs,
24:23
Speaker 1: a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher. Honestly, the smoke detector's
24:28
Speaker 1: kind of my favorite touch, because apparently Jeffrey Manchester thought,
24:32
Speaker 1: I have escaped prison, I am legally living inside an
24:36
Speaker 1: abandoned electronics store, I'm stealing stuff from a Toys R Us,
24:41
Speaker 1: but we're not going to be reckless about fire safety.
24:44
Speaker 1: We're pretty serious about that. His DVDs reportedly included Spider-Man 2,
24:49
Speaker 1: could have guessed that, Matchstick Men, 40 Days and 40 Nights,
24:54
Speaker 1: and Catch Me If You Can. which is almost offensively
24:58
Speaker 1: on the nose. And catch me if you can, if
25:01
Speaker 1: you remember, that's that Leonardo DiCaprio movie where he like
25:04
Speaker 1: is basically running around the world, breaking the law and
25:06
Speaker 1: doing things like clearly Jeffrey Manchester wants to be this guy.
25:10
Speaker 1: You're not a Leo brother. At this point, Jeffrey Manchester
25:13
Speaker 1: was successfully doing something that sounds impossible, but he had
25:18
Speaker 1: created another problem. He was lonely because being free doesn't
25:23
Speaker 1: feel especially free if you spend your entire life hiding
25:26
Speaker 1: behind children's bicycles. And he's literally an escapee from prison,
25:29
Speaker 1: let's not forget. So like, it's not like he can
25:32
Speaker 1: just like go back to his wife and kids. Like
25:34
Speaker 1: he literally will just go back to jail. From his
25:37
Speaker 1: rooftop hideout though, Manchester could see a church. Crossroads Presbyterian
25:44
Speaker 1: Church was nearby. Manchester had been raised Catholic and according
25:48
Speaker 1: to him, he genuinely missed church. He liked being around people.
25:53
Speaker 1: He liked the feeling of everybody in a room focused
25:56
Speaker 1: on the same thing. But, more importantly for a fugitive,
26:00
Speaker 1: he thought he could sit in the back, blend in,
26:03
Speaker 1: enjoy the service, leave without anybody noticing him. This plan
26:08
Speaker 1: lasted approximately one entrance. Manchester went through the wrong door.
26:14
Speaker 1: He got turned around inside the church. A woman noticed him,
26:17
Speaker 1: helped him find where he was going, sat with him,
26:20
Speaker 1: and started introducing him to people. His entire plan was
26:23
Speaker 1: to be anonymous. Instead, by the end of the morning,
26:27
Speaker 1: people knew him. Obviously, he couldn't say, Hello, I'm Jeffrey Manchester.
26:31
Speaker 1: I live in Toys R Us in Circuit City. So
26:34
Speaker 1: he introduced himself as John Zorn. And John Zorn was
26:39
Speaker 1: a hit at this church. Manchester started attending church regularly.
26:44
Speaker 1: He joined Bible study. He became friends with Pastor Ron Smith.
26:48
Speaker 1: The pastor even invited him to Thanksgiving dinner. And in
26:52
Speaker 1: one of those details where reality is just being obnoxious,
26:57
Speaker 1: Manchester walked into the pastor's office and noticed movie posters
27:01
Speaker 1: on the wall. One of them, The Great Escape. Manchester
27:07
Speaker 1: later remembered seeing it and essentially thinking, well, that's a coincidence,
27:11
Speaker 1: which it sure was. All of this is almost like
27:16
Speaker 1: too much to be a movie. Like I actually haven't
27:18
Speaker 1: watched the movie and I'm planning to watch it after
27:20
Speaker 1: I record this. I didn't really want it to taint
27:22
Speaker 1: me in what I was saying because I'd probably get
27:25
Speaker 1: confused about what's true and actually what's from the movie.
27:27
Speaker 1: But it's almost too much to be a movie, I think.
27:32
Speaker 1: So Jeffrey Manchester met a woman named Lee Wayne Scott
27:37
Speaker 1: at the church. Lane was recently separated after a long
27:40
Speaker 1: marriage and was raising three children. She and Manchester started talking.
27:44
Speaker 1: She liked him. Obviously, people at the church liked him.
27:47
Speaker 1: The pastor liked him. Lee later described him as funny, charming, polite, well-dressed, well-groomed,
27:55
Speaker 1: and extremely good at making people comfortable. There was nothing
27:58
Speaker 1: about him that screamed, I escaped from prison underneath a truck.
28:03
Speaker 1: Manchester told Lee that he had recently moved from New
28:05
Speaker 1: York and worked for the federal government. What did he
28:09
Speaker 1: do for the federal government? Classified, obviously, he can't tell you.
28:13
Speaker 1: Where did he live? That was pretty complicated, too. Manchester
28:17
Speaker 1: claimed he lived in a secure government building, a sterile environment,
28:22
Speaker 1: visitors weren't permitted, which is an incredibly convenient job to
28:26
Speaker 1: invent when you reside in a circuit city with Spider-Man
28:29
Speaker 1: sheets and a hole in the wall connecting you to
28:32
Speaker 1: a Toys R Us. But Lee believed him. And that's
28:36
Speaker 1: not because she was stupid or gullible. Manchester had built
28:40
Speaker 1: social proof around him. He was at church, the pastor
28:44
Speaker 1: adored him, the congregation liked him, He showed up when
28:48
Speaker 1: he said he would. He was clean cut. He behaved normally.
28:51
Speaker 1: He had military experience, which explained little things like always
28:55
Speaker 1: wanting to face the door when they were in public.
28:58
Speaker 1: Nothing about the rest of his life looked like a fugitive. Eventually,
29:02
Speaker 1: he and Lee began dating. They went on dates. They
29:06
Speaker 1: watched movies. He became involved with her children. And Manchester
29:11
Speaker 1: brought them presents, lots of toys. Wonder where he got
29:14
Speaker 1: those from. Around Christmas, he donated more toys to the
29:18
Speaker 1: church toy drive than anyone else. He gave Pastor Ron
29:22
Speaker 1: Smith DVDs, including Seasons of Seinfeld. And again, it sounds
29:27
Speaker 1: really sweet until you remember that Manchester did not go
29:30
Speaker 1: shopping for these items. Toys R Us was essentially unknowingly
29:34
Speaker 1: sponsoring his entire social life. Manchester also joined a gym.
29:39
Speaker 1: He went to the dental I think also I read
29:41
Speaker 1: somewhere that he actually got cavities when he was living
29:44
Speaker 1: at the Toys R Us from all the junk food,
29:47
Speaker 1: the candy and the baby food, like not great on
29:50
Speaker 1: the teeth. He moved around Charlotte regularly. One police captain
29:54
Speaker 1: later said that If you drew a ring around the
29:57
Speaker 1: Circuit City, Manchester had probably spoken with everybody within a mile.
30:01
Speaker 1: At one point, Lee teased him about not owning a car. So,
30:05
Speaker 1: Manchester went out and bought a 1999 Chrysler Concord for
30:09
Speaker 1: about $ 5, 000 in cash and put it in Lee's name.
30:14
Speaker 1: Lee's reaction was basically, wow, the federal government sure pays well.
30:19
Speaker 1: Manchester later said he tried not to tell more lies
30:21
Speaker 1: than necessary because too many lies become hard to remember.
30:25
Speaker 1: So his philosophy was to tell the truth about essentially everything,
30:29
Speaker 1: with four exceptions. His name, his job, where he lived,
30:35
Speaker 1: and the fact that he was an escaped prisoner. Those
30:37
Speaker 1: are kind of some four biggies, though. Manchester said his
30:40
Speaker 1: feelings for Lee were real. He says he loved her.
30:44
Speaker 1: And for Lee, the relationship was absolutely real. That's another
30:48
Speaker 1: part of this story that gets lost when everything is
30:50
Speaker 1: told like a comedy. Manchester knew who Lee was. but
30:54
Speaker 1: Lee did not know who Manchester was. She introduced this
30:58
Speaker 1: person into her children's lives based on information that wasn't true.
31:02
Speaker 1: So while Jeffrey was playing John Zorn in thinking he
31:06
Speaker 1: had figured out how to live a normal life as
31:07
Speaker 1: a fugitive, Lee was actually living that life, and she
31:11
Speaker 1: had no idea that it could collapse at any moment.
31:15
Speaker 1: By this point, Manchester also knew every day outside prison
31:18
Speaker 1: was borrowed time. But instead of making him more careful,
31:22
Speaker 1: it seemed to have made him more confident, He told
31:25
Speaker 1: WBTV that he once even had to go inside a
31:28
Speaker 1: police station for something, and no one looked twice at him.
31:32
Speaker 1: He blended in. And every time he got away with
31:35
Speaker 1: something like that, he became more convinced that he could
31:38
Speaker 1: continue getting away with everything. Eventually, that confidence took him
31:43
Speaker 1: right back to what had put him in prison in
31:44
Speaker 1: the first place. Robbery. Manchester and Lee's relationship has since
31:50
Speaker 1: been described independently by Lee herself. Manchester wasn't just living
31:54
Speaker 1: inside the Toys R Us. He was studying it. According
31:58
Speaker 1: to Manchester, he successfully stole about $ 14, 000 from the store
32:02
Speaker 1: at one point. Then he decided to do it again.
32:06
Speaker 1: December 26, 2004, the day after Christmas. Manchester knew the store.
32:11
Speaker 1: He knew the employees, the exits, the schedules. He was
32:14
Speaker 1: literally making the schedules, so... And presumably, he knew that
32:18
Speaker 1: there was a lot of holiday money inside. Manchester went
32:22
Speaker 1: into the Toys R Us armed and attempted to gather
32:24
Speaker 1: the employees together. But two employees managed to run through
32:28
Speaker 1: a secondary exit. And the plan collapsed. Manchester ran. He
32:33
Speaker 1: escaped through another door that should have triggered an alarm,
32:36
Speaker 1: but he had already disabled it. Police arrived and began searching.
32:40
Speaker 1: And something wasn't adding up. Investigators could see employees leaving.
32:46
Speaker 1: They could review surveillance footage. But Manchester seemed to have disappeared.
32:51
Speaker 1: Police dogs reportedly found thousands of dollars in Toys R
32:54
Speaker 1: Us merchandise hidden above ceiling tiles. And suddenly, officers were
33:00
Speaker 1: looking much more carefully at the building and the properties
33:02
Speaker 1: around it. Still, they didn't immediately find Manchester's hideout in
33:07
Speaker 1: Circuit City. Manchester says his own mistake came when he
33:12
Speaker 1: went back for belongings that he had left behind. Specifically,
33:16
Speaker 1: photographs of his family. He later said they were the
33:19
Speaker 1: most important possessions he had. He believes an off-duty officer
33:23
Speaker 1: saw him or saw something suspicious, which led to another search.
33:28
Speaker 1: This time, police found the Circuit City room. Manchester thought
33:32
Speaker 1: he was safe. He said he had wiped down every
33:35
Speaker 1: inch of the hideout specifically to remove fingerprints. Except, according
33:40
Speaker 1: to his 2026 version of the story, he had been
33:43
Speaker 1: painting and accidentally left a thumbprint. Police recovered it, and
33:49
Speaker 1: it matched Jeffrey Manchester. Now, one detail that gets reported
33:53
Speaker 1: differently depends on the source. Several accounts say the identifying
33:58
Speaker 1: fingerprint was recovered from Manchester's copy of Catch Me If
34:01
Speaker 1: You Can. Manchester himself says the print was accidentally left
34:06
Speaker 1: while he was painting. I desperately want the Catch Me
34:09
Speaker 1: If You Can version to be true because from a
34:12
Speaker 1: storytelling standpoint, it is perfection. But since the man whose
34:17
Speaker 1: thumb it allegedly was now tells a different story, we're
34:20
Speaker 1: just going to say police found a fingerprint. They knew
34:24
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Manchester had been living there. And yes, Catch Me
34:27
Speaker 1: If You Can was apparently among his movies. We're keeping
34:31
Speaker 1: in the fun part without lying. Once police identified Manchester,
34:35
Speaker 1: his face went on to the local news. And according
34:38
Speaker 1: to Manchester, the night his identity was broadcast on television,
34:42
Speaker 1: he was at Lee's house. He had no idea. Someone
34:46
Speaker 1: from the church apparently recognized him, and authorities approached Lee
34:49
Speaker 1: the next day. It was January 5, 2005, her 40th birthday.
34:56
Speaker 1: Imagine getting ready to celebrate your birthday, and police show
34:58
Speaker 1: up at your job. They show you a picture of
35:01
Speaker 1: your boyfriend, and you say, that's John. And they say, no,
35:05
Speaker 1: that's Jeffrey Manchester. He's an escaped prisoner, committed armed robberies,
35:09
Speaker 1: and is considered dangerous. Although, according to Lee, she initially
35:13
Speaker 1: thought the police had to be wronged. They showed her
35:16
Speaker 1: information online. The face was John. The name underneath wasn't.
35:22
Speaker 1: And when reality finally hit, Lee fell apart. She cried.
35:27
Speaker 1: She later described it as feeling like someone had died.
35:30
Speaker 1: She was horrified, heartbroken, embarrassed. And probably the worst part,
35:35
Speaker 1: she immediately started thinking about her children. She had brought
35:38
Speaker 1: this man into their lives, and she had trusted him.
35:41
Speaker 1: Police now needed her help. They believed Manchester was getting
35:45
Speaker 1: ready to disappear, and they were right. Manchester says by
35:49
Speaker 1: then he had documents prepared, passports, driver's license, social security cards,
35:55
Speaker 1: everything he believed he needed to leave the country and
35:57
Speaker 1: start over again. But before he disappeared, he had two
36:01
Speaker 1: things he wanted to do. First, destroy evidence. Remember that
36:07
Speaker 1: dentist appointment because he had some little cavities? Manchester remembered it.
36:12
Speaker 1: and he knew dental x-rays had been taken. And somehow,
36:16
Speaker 1: the completely proportionate solution his brain arrived at was burn
36:21
Speaker 1: down the dentist's office. Before sunrise on January 5th, investigators
36:26
Speaker 1: say Manchester set fire to the office. Manchester now says
36:30
Speaker 1: this was one of the biggest regrets in that it
36:33
Speaker 1: was completely unnecessary. Yes, I would have to agree with that. Second,
36:40
Speaker 1: He wanted to see Lee one final time. He loved her.
36:44
Speaker 1: He couldn't imagine disappearing without saying goodbye. And unfortunately for Manchester,
36:49
Speaker 1: Lee had agreed to cooperate with the police. Lee had
36:53
Speaker 1: already been planning to see Manchester for her birthday. So
36:55
Speaker 1: police told her, use that. Call him, act normal, tell
36:59
Speaker 1: him you're excited, confirm the plans. And Lee did. She
37:04
Speaker 1: spent hours with the police. Her children were moved somewhere safe.
37:08
Speaker 1: She made calls to the man she had known as
37:10
Speaker 1: John while investigators listened. Manchester later said Lee kept calling
37:16
Speaker 1: him every 30 minutes or so, which he admits was
37:19
Speaker 1: slightly unusual. And there was apparently a tiny part of
37:22
Speaker 1: his brain saying, huh, this is weird. But then the
37:26
Speaker 1: rest of Jeffrey Manchester's brain said she's probably just really
37:29
Speaker 1: excited for her birthday. Sir, you are an escaped prisoner.
37:35
Speaker 1: Police just found your hidden retail apartment. you should probably
37:38
Speaker 1: engage the suspicious portion of your brain. Manchester was driving
37:43
Speaker 1: toward Lee's apartment when officers began following him. At one point,
37:47
Speaker 1: he suddenly made a U-turn, and police thought they had
37:49
Speaker 1: been spotted. But Manchester wasn't fleeing. He pulled into a
37:54
Speaker 1: grocery store, went inside, and came out carrying flowers. He'd
38:00
Speaker 1: stopped to buy Lee a bouquet. Manchester continued toward her apartment,
38:06
Speaker 1: and law enforcement were waiting. Lee was nearby in the
38:09
Speaker 1: back of a police vehicle, listening as everything unfolded over
38:12
Speaker 1: the radio. Manchester got out, walked toward the apartment with
38:16
Speaker 1: the flowers, knocked, but there was no answer. He had
38:21
Speaker 1: a key, so he tried the door, and it wouldn't open.
38:24
Speaker 1: Something appeared to be blocking it from inside, and then
38:27
Speaker 1: Manchester heard vehicles behind him. A tactile team descended. Manchester
38:32
Speaker 1: was unarmed, and he surrendered. According to the Charlotte Observer,
38:37
Speaker 1: an officer asked him his name. Manchester said something essentially like,
38:41
Speaker 1: you already know. But the officer wanted to hear him
38:44
Speaker 1: say it. And finally, the man Lee knew as John answered,
38:48
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Manchester. It was over. Lee listened from the back
38:53
Speaker 1: of the police car and started crying. Later that night,
38:57
Speaker 1: she asked police whether she could speak with him, and
38:59
Speaker 1: they allowed a phone call. Both of them cried. Manchester
39:03
Speaker 1: apologized for deceiving her. Lee apologized for helping police arrest him,
39:08
Speaker 1: and then she went home to deal with the aftermath
39:10
Speaker 1: of a situation she never knowingly signed up for. Police
39:14
Speaker 1: searched her apartment. The gifts Manchester had given her and
39:18
Speaker 1: her children became evidence. She barely slept. She stayed home
39:22
Speaker 1: from work for days. She felt humiliated and like everyone
39:26
Speaker 1: was judging her. Eventually, she stopped going to the church
39:29
Speaker 1: when she had met him. And here's a bizarre final
39:33
Speaker 1: detail from Lee's side of the story. Remember the green
39:37
Speaker 1: Chrysler Manchester bought? Police had impounded it. And then eventually
39:42
Speaker 1: it was returned to Lee. At some point afterward, the
39:46
Speaker 1: ventilation system started malfunctioning. she took the car to a mechanic.
39:51
Speaker 1: The mechanic opened everything up and discovered why the ventilation
39:55
Speaker 1: wasn't working correctly. There was a gun hidden inside. Apparently,
40:00
Speaker 1: police had missed it. Lee drove the weapon straight back
40:03
Speaker 1: to the police station because at that point, I imagine
40:07
Speaker 1: her tolerance for Jeffrey Manchester-related surprises was completely gone. Manchester
40:13
Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to a long list of new crimes connected
40:16
Speaker 1: with the escape and Charlotte period. The charges include escape, robbery,
40:21
Speaker 1: breaking and entering, kidnapping, arson, and firearm offenses. He received
40:26
Speaker 1: an additional 25-year sentence that runs concurrently with his existing sentence.
40:32
Speaker 1: And just in case you're thinking, surely Jeffrey Manchester finally
40:36
Speaker 1: accepted that prison was unavoidable. No. He tried to escape again. Twice.
40:44
Speaker 1: One attempt came in 2009, another in 2017. Both failed.
40:50
Speaker 1: Manchester says the first resulted in about two and a
40:52
Speaker 1: half years in solitary confinement, which sounds awful. The second
40:57
Speaker 1: eventually resulted in around nine years in solitary. As of 2026,
41:02
Speaker 1: Manchester would like everyone to know that he has retired
41:05
Speaker 1: from escaping prison, which I am just thrilled to hear about.
41:09
Speaker 1: Congratulations on the retirement, Jeffrey. He remains incarcerated in North Carolina.
41:15
Speaker 1: His projected release is in 2036, when he will be
41:19
Speaker 1: in his mid-60s. And after spending decades mostly known through
41:23
Speaker 1: police reports and newspaper articles, Manchester recently started talking publicly
41:27
Speaker 1: about what he did. In February 2026, WBTV released the
41:33
Speaker 1: first extensive interview where Manchester discussed the robberies, escape, and
41:38
Speaker 1: his time living in Toys R Us in his own words.
41:42
Speaker 1: And there's clearly a difference between the way Manchester talks
41:44
Speaker 1: about his crimes now and apparently viewed them at the time.
41:49
Speaker 1: During the robberies, Manchester says he convinced himself that what
41:52
Speaker 1: he was doing was essentially victimless. He wasn't stealing from
41:56
Speaker 1: the employees. He was stealing from a corporation. He believed
41:59
Speaker 1: he could control the situation and that nobody would get hurt.
42:03
Speaker 1: He now sees he can still picture the faces of
42:05
Speaker 1: the people he held up. He acknowledges that those people
42:08
Speaker 1: are absolutely victims. He hurt them emotionally. One of those victims,
42:13
Speaker 1: Elaine Snyder, has made it clear that even 25 years later,
42:18
Speaker 1: she does not share the more romanticized views of Manchester
42:21
Speaker 1: that have developed around this story. And I think that's
42:23
Speaker 1: worth hearing. Because Jeffrey Manchester has become a very easy
42:27
Speaker 1: person to turn into a character. He's charismatic, clever, his
42:32
Speaker 1: crimes are weird, and his escape is almost cinematic. His
42:38
Speaker 1: Secret Toys R Us life sounds like something a screenwriter
42:41
Speaker 1: would pitch... and be told was too unrealistic. And like
42:46
Speaker 1: I said, Hollywood literally made a movie about it. Roofman
42:50
Speaker 1: was released in October 2025, with Channing Tatum playing Manchester
42:55
Speaker 1: and Kirsten Dunst playing a fictionalized version of Lee. The
42:59
Speaker 1: real Lee has since spoken publicly about what happened. Interestingly,
43:03
Speaker 1: after years without contact, she and Manchester have reconnected as friends.
43:08
Speaker 1: She's visited him in prison. And they do speak occasionally.
43:12
Speaker 1: She's remarried and has been very clear that it is
43:15
Speaker 1: not a romantic relationship. She says she believes Manchester is
43:19
Speaker 1: remorseful and that she has forgiven him. Manchester says he
43:22
Speaker 1: doesn't blame her for helping police capture him. He says
43:26
Speaker 1: she had every right to do what she did. He
43:28
Speaker 1: betrayed her trust. And ultimately, Manchester now puts responsibility for
43:32
Speaker 1: where he is squarely on himself. He has said there
43:37
Speaker 1: was no gang forcing him, no drug addiction, no peer pressure.
43:40
Speaker 1: He made all of these decisions. And one of the
43:43
Speaker 1: more interesting things he said in the 2026 interview was that,
43:47
Speaker 1: at the time, he had become convinced he was simply
43:50
Speaker 1: too smart to be caught. He planned everything, he saw
43:54
Speaker 1: weaknesses where other people didn't see, and then success reinforced
43:58
Speaker 1: that belief. Every police officer he escaped, every day inside
44:02
Speaker 1: Toys R Us, every time he walked around Charlotte and
44:06
Speaker 1: nobody recognized him, every church service, every date, every time
44:11
Speaker 1: John Zorn successfully existed while Jeffrey Manchester was on the run,
44:16
Speaker 1: it made him more confident. Until confidence became arrogance, and
44:20
Speaker 1: arrogance made him sloppy. Manchester himself summed it up very simply.
44:25
Speaker 1: He deserved to get caught. And that is Jeffrey Manchester,
44:30
Speaker 1: the roof man. A man who robbed dozens of McDonald's
44:34
Speaker 1: restaurants by cutting through the ceiling, got caught, escaped prison
44:38
Speaker 1: under a truck, moved into a Toys R Us, survived
44:42
Speaker 1: on baby food and candy, rode bikes through the store
44:45
Speaker 1: at night like a seven-year-old, built a secret Circuit City
44:48
Speaker 1: apartment that apparently he painted the walls of, joined a
44:52
Speaker 1: church under a fake identity, got a girlfriend, invented a
44:56
Speaker 1: federal government career, burned down his dentist's office, or at
44:59
Speaker 1: least attempted, and ultimately got caught because he couldn't resist
45:03
Speaker 1: going back to see the woman he had fallen in
45:05
Speaker 1: love with, with flowers. There are plenty of criminals where
45:09
Speaker 1: you finish researching and think, this person was a criminal mastermind.
45:14
Speaker 1: And there are others where you think, this person is
45:17
Speaker 1: a total idiot. Jeffrey Manchester somehow manages to make a
45:22
Speaker 1: very strong case for both. Because hiding inside a Toys
45:25
Speaker 1: R Us for months without anyone finding you? Impressive. Robbing
45:30
Speaker 1: the Toys R Us that you are currently secretly living in?
45:33
Speaker 1: Less impressive. and cutting through the roof of a McDonald's
45:36
Speaker 1: only to discover that it's Thanksgiving and the McDonald's is closed.
45:39
Speaker 1: That one's going to stay with me forever. That one's
45:41
Speaker 1: going to stick around. So I do have questions. First
45:45
Speaker 1: of all, if you had to secretly live inside one
45:49
Speaker 1: early 2000s retail store for six months, which one are
45:52
Speaker 1: you picking? Because now that I think about it, Toys
45:56
Speaker 1: R Us would actually be pretty high on the list.
45:59
Speaker 1: Target would obviously be number one. because you don't have
46:02
Speaker 1: to at least secretly eat baby food at Target. They
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Speaker 1: have an entire grocery section. They've got clothes. They've got
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Speaker 1: it all. And second, where do you land on Jeffrey Manchester?
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Speaker 1: Do you think the charm and weirdness of the story
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Speaker 1: causes people to minimize what he actually did? Or can
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Speaker 1: both things be true? That he caused real harm? And
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Speaker 1: this is one of the most unbelievable true crime stories ever.
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Speaker 1: Let me know what you think. You can find me
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Speaker 1: on Instagram, TikTok, email me, And as always, if you
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Speaker 1: have a case, mystery, or apparently fully grown men secretly
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Speaker 1: living above your local retail establishment that you think I
46:39
Speaker 1: need to look into, send it my way. Stay curious.
46:45
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Cat Has Questions. If you liked
46:48
Speaker 1: this episode, follow the show and share it with someone
46:50
Speaker 1: who loves a good spiral. See you next week.