© Toledo Police/James BrownToledo police Lt. James Brown caught the furry thief with the goods as the officer was walking into the office Wednesday. He snapped the critter with his cell phone.
It's not every day Toledo police catch a thief in the act, let alone with a uniformed command officer standing just feet away, watching.
But that's exactly what happened Wednesday.
For days, officers noticed that small flags were disappearing from the Toledo Police Memorial Garden at the Civic Mall, between the municipal and federal courthouses downtown. There were no suspects, no clues left at the scene to help police catch the perpetrator.
But about 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, walking into the office, Lieutenants James Brown and Mark King watched the bandit take a flag -- and a single pink plastic flower -- from the garden.
"I just saw him eyeballing it," Lieutenant Brown said. "He didn't know I was standing there."
The quick-thinking officer pulled out his cell phone to snap a picture.
Lieutenant Brown got his man. Or, well, his squirrel.
