Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Man Who Robbed 40 McDonalds - The Jeffrey Alan Manchester story

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

This is the story of Jeffrey Alan Manchester aka Roofman, who robbed 40-60 McDonald's stores and secretly lived in a Toys R Us.

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Paradise, the official podcast, is now streaming. And stream Paradise on Kulu and Kulu on Disney Plus. So this guy, let's call him Hamburgler. And one night, Hamburgerer's on the roof of a McDonald's. And it's laid and the staff is still there, but the store is closed. And Hamburgerger, he has a bunch of power tools and he starts drilling and cutting into the roof. And once he has a two by two foot hole big enough, he repels down into the store. Now the staff, they're still there, closing up the place.

And that is when Hamburgerger, he pulls out his pew-poo. And he doesn't scream at them or anything, he just politely says, Will everyone please get into the walk-in freezer, I'm robbing the place. And he's very calm and he's very nice. He even suggests that they take their coats with them, you know, so that they don't get cold. So the McDonald's staff obeys and they shuffle into the freezer. And then Hamburgler, he locks them in and then he robs all the money from the store. And then he flees.

And once he's gone, he calls police so that they can come and let the staff out, so that they don't like die in the freezer. Now, Hamburgerger, he's an interesting guy because he mostly robs McDonald's. mostly McDonald's? Well, because he used to work there as a teenager. So he knows McDonald's stores are very cookie cutter. Most of them have the same layout, a lot of them have the same schedule, and when he robs these stores, he always robs during closing time. And he always lowers himself down through the roof so that he won't attract any unnecessary attention trying to bust through the front doors. And using this method,

he robs somewhere between 40 and 60 McDonald's stores in a two-year period. But then, one day, hamburger gets a little greedy. He robs a McDonald's, and then a few hours later, he drives 10 miles away, and he finds another McDonald's, and he lowers himself in through the roof, and he starts to rob it too. So two stores in one day. But in this McDonald's, an employee is actually able to hit the silent alarm,

and then boom, Hamburgerger gets caught, and he gets arrested, and here's his mugshot. So he goes to trial, he gets sentenced to 45 years in prison, and almost immediately he starts thinking of a plan to break himself out. Four years later, he finally gets his chance. See, Hamburgler is very well-behaved in prison. So they allow him to work in the metal shop where the good prisoners get to work. And while he's there, he secretly uses all their tools to make like a fake undercarriage.

And he fastens it to an actual undercarriage of a delivery truck. And then he hides in it as that delivery truck is leaving the prison. And this allows him to escape. So now he's on the run. But unfortunately for him, he's got nowhere to stay. So he breaks into a local Toys R Us at night and he stays there. He finds a little cubby hole way behind the bike rack where he can make a little camp and hide and sleep at night. And then every night during closing hours, he comes out and he gets exercised by riding bikes up and down the aisles.

And he survives by eating baby food off the shelves. And he knows where all the security cameras are so he knows how to avoid them and not get caught. And so he just lives here in this Toys R Us comfortably for like several months. Meanwhile, he starts a sort of normal life out in the community. He joins a local church and he's very active in it. In fact, while he's at this church, he meets a really nice woman. This woman, Lee. And Lee's a nice single mother with three kids.

And Lee likes Hamburgerger, so they start dating. Now, obviously, he doesn't tell her he's an escaped convict who's living in a nearby Toys of Us. Instead, he tells her he works for the government and that he can't tell her much about his job or his background because he says he has special security clearance and lives in a secret government building. And Lee's just like, all right, cool. Because she likes Hamburger. I mean, she's a single mother and he's really good with her three kids. Like he's always hanging out with them and bringing them new toys, which he stole from Toys R Us, but whatever. And this whole thing, it goes on for several

months. But then, as time passes, it starts to get into the Christmas season. And Hamburgerer decides this Toys R Us is getting way too much foot traffic for him. to keep staying there hiding out in his little cubby hole behind the bike rack. So he gets some tools, and during closing hours, he tunnels through the wall and into the next building over, which just happens to be an abandoned Circuit City. And there, he sets up a new secret hideout, inside almost a little closet area underneath a stairwell, and he had stolen a DVD player. So there, in Circuit City, he just kind of chills most of the day, and he watches a bunch

of DVDs, and he is completely undetected. Until. As the holiday season ramps up, Hamburgerer knows Toys R Us is about to make a ton of money. So he decides he's gonna rob them. So he waits until the day after Christmas, and when the store is finally closed, and the employees, they're still there,

closing up and counting the money, and Hamburgerer gets a Pue Pue that he had stolen, and he sneaks into the Toys Russ through the tunnel he had made. And then, bam, he approaches the employees, and he's polite, but he orders them to please put their hands up. But unfortunately, for him, During this robbery, two Toyser Us employees quickly managed to slip out the back door. And they run as fast as they can until they get to a phone and they call police.

And then police show up and they try to corner Hamburgerger. But Hamburgerger, he's a bit crafty. And he manages to escape through that tunnel he created. So then police find the tunnel. And eventually they find his secret hideout under the stairwell in Circuit City. And in his hideout, they find a DVD he had been watching. And from that, they're able to get his fingerprints off of it. And that DVD?

coincidentally catch me if you can anyway once they have his fingerprints they correctly identify him and now they know he's the same guy that robbed all those McDonald's back in the day and then later broke out of prison hamburger so police put out an APB letting everyone in the community know that there's an armed convict on the loose and then the story makes local news and then they show hamburgler's mugshot on the screen and then some people from the local church they recognize him like hey that's the guy who's dating Lee so then police they go talk to Lee and then they explained to her that this not

Nice guy who's been really great to her kids is actually a wanted ex-con. And Lee is sad and she's devastated and all, but she agrees to help. And then after they plan a whole setup, Lee calls Hamburgerger and she invites him over to her 40th birthday party. And Hamburgerger shows up to see her, but instead of a birthday party, he finds the police waiting for him. Whomp-womp. So they arrest him again, and now he's back in prison. Shout out to Charlotte, North Carolina.