Unseasoned scooter bandit forgets to ditch one thing

An alleged burglar, who nearly got away on a scooter weighted down with a flat-screen television, was arrested early Friday morning after an officer spotted him with a stolen pepper grinder hanging out of his pocket.

Jason Cole Hughes, 22, unemployed of Carson City, was arrested at 1:28 a.m. on suspicion of felony burglary.

According to the arrest report, employees of Dopplegangers at 302 N. Carson St., called police because an intoxicated man had jumped the concrete fence to their Curry Street patio and kicked open the wooden gate, making off with the flat-screen TV, two bottles of Patron tequila, a wooden toothpick box and a pepper grinder just after the bar closed.

The suspect loaded up his scooter and took off north on Curry Street.

Some 10 blocks away, Deputy Quan Tran was finishing up a traffic stop when he heard the burglary call and spotted a man on a scooter at Adaline and Curry streets.

The man appeared to have a wooden club sticking out of his pants pocket.

Quan stopped the driver, Hughes, and took the club away, discovering that it was in fact a pepper grinder.

Upon questioning, Hughes allegedly admitted he was the one involved in the Dopplegangers burglary.

"(He) stated he didn't get far with the stolen items, so he decided to get rid of some of the items while making his way back home," Quan wrote in the report. "(Hughes) dropped the liquor bottles and flat-screen television on an unknown street, but still had the mentioned pepper shaker/grinder in his possession."

Hughes allegedly told the officer that he'd been drinking at a casino and was on his way home when he wanted more to drink.

"So he stopped by Dopplegangers and broke into the business mainly to steal the hard liquor," the report states.

It was not clear in the report if the television and liquor were recovered.

Hughes is being held on $25,000 bail.

• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.