The Crime Rings Stealing Everything from Purses to Power Tools

In the parking lot, Tom Probart, a bushily mustachioed detective in his thirties, distributed maps of the Home Depot’s layout and exits. Suspects rarely flee through Gardening, he told the other officers. The store’s back door opened onto a high wall, leaving the main entrance and Lumber as thieves’ likelier choices of egress. Probart pronounced “lumber” as “lumbar,” and his colleagues immediately gave him the appropriate amount of shit.