An 18-year-old Louisiana man is looking at potential years in prison after walking out of a gas station with $19.88 in snacks — then casually returning to the same store while police were still on the scene.
Just after midnight on Aug. 11, John Alex Jordan entered a Circle K at 809 Olive Street in Shreveport, grabbed three packages of small donuts, two packages of honey buns, a package of pound cake and a fountain drink, and left without paying. The clerk called the police. Officers arrived, took a description of a white male with long curly blonde hair in a blue zip-up hoodie, gray shorts and black shoes, and searched the area. They came up empty.
A short time later, the same officer spotted a man matching that description walking back into the Circle K. He was detained on the spot and identified as Jordan.
Shreveport police couldn’t resist a little shade in their official Facebook post. “In a move that made things significantly easier for everyone involved, he returned to the store while police were still nearby,” the department wrote. “Apparently, returning to the scene really does work. Just not in the way he probably hoped.”
The $19.88 snack run was only the beginning. While processing Jordan, officers connected him to a recent burglary at the local Elks Lodge and discovered he already had an outstanding theft warrant from another case. He was booked into Caddo Correctional Center on Aug. 12 on one count of theft, one count of simple burglary and the prior warrant.
Under Louisiana law, simple burglary can carry up to 12 years. The theft charge is lighter, but stacked with the existing warrant, the total exposure is no joke for a late-night sugar run.
Police summed it up cleanly: paying the $19.88 would have been “considerably cheaper than the alternative.” Jordan remained in custody as of the latest reports. The story has been making the rounds online for exactly the reason you’d expect — the pure, unforced self-own of returning to the scene while the investigation was still live.
