Charlie, if you’re wondering about what the inside of the Toys-R-Us bunker looked like, why not have Roofman on the podcast and ask him yourself? Many (most?) prisoners are happy to talk about their experiences and he would be a good source to ask directly (even though prisoners sometimes exaggerate). You’re certainly big enough that he is unlikely to refuse. Food for thought.
He had the perfect skill set: he used to be a commando who owned a roofing business but had his family killed in a horrible McDonalds incident. Ultimate villain back story
Imagine working at this specific Toys 'R' Us store not knowing there is this super genius engineer/thief/craftsman living under the roof. Eating baby food, creating trap doors, stealing toys and pipe in water. this is some serious suvival game madness.
thing is, some people will have noticed things going on, like noises in the walls, things going missing and probably thought they were imagining it or that the place was haunted
Considering how peacefully he accepted the first arrest and how hard he avoided the second, I feel like this is more evidence of how horrible America's prison system is. Upsetting to think that a modern-day Gentleman Thief got pushed to violence by its spectre.
Yeah, our prison system is horrible because it’s meant for punishment, not rehabilitation. It’s supposed to scare people away from committing crimes in the first place, but evidently it’s not very effective in doing so. I’d rather a criminal suffer than be pampered using my tax dollars, but that’s just me and I understand the arguments in favor of better rehabilitation. The prison subculture basically makes rehabilitating offenders impossible, it’s pretty obvious who is going to be a recidivist and who isn’t.
Privately owned prisons make most of their money off of repeat offenders. I'm sure that's got nothing to do with America's crime problem though-it's all those damn vidya gaemz!
@@Sniperboy5551 prison is a business, it encourages repeat offenders on purpose. Adam Hates Everything has a great video about this (plus he's still doing his thing lol). However, I feel like the 'm-muh tax dollars' argument is so worn out at this point, it's not like you're choosing what to do with it anyways. Why are people so quick to demonize fixing up our roads, rehabilitating our prisoners and taking care of our people when the military has to justify a budget in the 800 billion range with 40,000 dollar office furniture? If it were up to me, I wouldn't want my tax dollars spent on cushioning the behinds of pencil pushers and boot lickers. P.s: Prisoners lose a lot of fundamental rights. I think giving them proper living conditions isn't "pampering" when they're fundamentally below the average citizen. Keep in mind that prison budget also goes to training better staff and creating better facilities for THEM as well. Or at least it should... That's a whole 'nother topic tho.
@@Sniperboy5551 except the system unfairly and disproportionately targets minorities and sentences them to worse and worse prison times for the same crimes as those who are white or especially rich. All crime is by far not equal. The punishments for crime are certainly not equal either, especially when it disproportionately targets women, minorities, and the less physically strong. Prison rape is unacceptable, but everyone just knows it happens in prisons. That's disgusting. It should've never been allowed to became a main stay of prisons. The politicians, the system, the ruling class, and the rich corporations and wealthiest individuals who control and designed it to be this way after 100s of years of causing it to be this way can fuck off.
This man is just an incredible survivalist. He's aware he's doing wrong when he told the police they did a good job. Makes me wonder if this guy was doing this to test himself, for fun, or for some other reason.
There's a certain type of adrenaline rush somebody like this gets. And the only way to find that high is to do shit like this. He also happened to be extremely skilled at it (from what I can tell).
As a former Toys R Us employee that worked the bike section and someone who had to help tear down the store after it went under, I can confirm there is a decent amount of space behind the bike racks. He wouldn't have been doing any jumping jacks back there but he would have had about a 3 ft wide room to move around and stand in certain areas. I cant guarantee all stores were like this though. On a side note we had once found a little hideaway one of our back-of-house employees made for himself inside the storage bays by hollowing it out of boxes and building a wall of small boxes in front, it was complete with a couple baby mattresses and snacks too. It was found when that bay was scheduled for an audit but we never found out who it actually was.
A place I worked at years ago had a secret storage room hidden inside a basement bathroom. Looking at it you would assume it was a small supply closet but when you opened it up it was a 20x20 room filled with a bunch of crap from the 80s including the drafts for the renovation. The whole bathroom area apparently used to be storage and they kept half as storage but it was never used…. Long story short we added a bed and tv for people working splits and swing shifts.
@@venombeetle7473 Ikr, really pumped for season 2 of Roof Top Robber, seeing what wacky shenanigans he gets up to. Leaked next season description: Using his time in prison to learn about architecture, engineering, computer programing, metallurgy, plumbing, excavation, and craftsmanship the RTR builds his most incredible lair yet! Tunneling under an abandoned blockbuster which somehow wasnt converted to any other store cause...idk ghosts? There he put all his new skills to work stealing from construction sites, dumps, the strange homeless guy who collects broken electronics cause he thinks he is an alien and needs those to build a teleporter to get back to his planet, and from other abandoned buildings to create a massive 20 acre underground lair just like the Hive from the 1st Resident Evil movie.
I’m not entirely sure why he chose to rob the restaurants this way, but my guess is he really just needed an excuse to rappel down from the roof. He was probably insanely bored. It’s just dope as hell.
I mean if I had the skills, God knows I'm doing it too. Family reunion? social gatherings? the cinema? work? a funeral? All very good places to rappel down the roof if you ask me.
Probably after hours when the restaurant is drive-thru only. Or perhaps trying to end up in the kitchen first, catching people off guard without the security of the counter in front of them. Possibly makes it a bit harder to call the police.
DUDE! I remember watching this news LIVE. So here's why he went through the roof: he would cut a hole in the roof and get in the in-between space. He waited until the restaurant closed and they had taken all the money to the back. Then, with the store locked up, but before they put it in the safe, he would drop down and rob them. He often brought a bag of goodwill sweaters and passed them to the employees when he asked them to wait in the walk-in fridge. Many employees refused to identify him and spoke highly of him.
That's big brained. That means usually only store manager and supervisor would be there nobody else, surprising them in comfortable private place the back office, very easy to control situation.
If he was so nice, I don't understand why people were so compliant. It's weird that a guy who is not even threatening could convince so many people to let him rob them or get them into the freezer room.
This guy isn’t even unlikable. Through the whole vid I was rooting for him and his crazy ass schemes. Also, I would pay so much for a movie about this guy
Okay, so is no one gonna talk about how well this guy would do in a zombie apocalypse? Engineering skills to make sure everything is router properly from what I can tell, military training for good combat skills, great personality to keep moral up, and using available items properly. I imagine this guy could probably do really fucking well for awhile till he’d have to deal with other survivors.
I also thought of that when Charlie was questioning why the guy chose to eat baby food! Sure, one can enjoy chips and cookies during a survival event, but Manchester was clearly aware of the kind of nutrition he would need to stay sharp. Maybe baby food doesn't taste the best, but it'll cover the bases.
When I was in the army I was always taught that when you start to clear a building that clearing from the top down is the most advantageous route. Highly unlikely 99% of the time. But if you could take that 1%. Go for it.
Hes an inspiration to be kind no matter what you're perpetrating. Didn't try and kill anyone, wasn't rude, hell probably didn't cause anyone significant mental anguish.
He is already living in the attic of that viewer's house. He escaped years ago. No one detected his escape because he created a convincing robotic decoy with advanced AI using a garbage can, a mop, VCR motors, and an iPhone
It absolutely baffles me the fact that the exact same toys R us is the exact same location I used to go to almost every week when I was little. Never did I realize until today I had walked in the same place as the notorious roof bandit. I still remember the entire store with pinpoint images in my mind, their giant rack of skylanders trap team figurines that I used to use back when the monroe toys r us was still open. The nostalgia and also the fear it brings me to think I ever so innocently walked in this guys footsteps is crazy.
to be fair, with all his baby monitors he probably could have learned the toys r us's alarm code, turned it off at night, went and robbed some place else, and get away back to his home base in toys r us, locking the door and resetting the alarm. legit no one would ever have known lol
It all started with him breaking up with his wife, and ended with him trying to meet with his girlfriend. Poor man, nobody in the story quite seems to have caught on how heartbroken this guy was. Truly every story like this is just a personal tragedy above everything else.
At least he didn't harm others because of his problems. He was a robber and a criminal, true, but it seems that he never really harmed anyone except for that one person he punched to escape.
@@totemking9418 i agree with you. As long as he didn't hurt anyone. Seems like hurting is not what he's into either. In fact he was very respectful (except that one incident) to the employees.
I feel like at least at first he was probably just a veteran down on hard times. Like he didn’t steal millions, targeted a well insured chain where the employees would still get paid their dues, and took absolute care to not harm anyone. Definitely knew employees received training to not fight back and acted by coming through the roof after close so that he wouldn’t encounter the public who might try to be heroes causing injury. The ToysRUs stunt is unhinged tho.
6:32 “Toys R Us had all kinds of snacks he didn’t need baby food!” Well he probably ate baby food for a very specific reason. Baby food is designed to have the most variation of nutrients and is meant to be as nourishing as possible, to help a baby grow. To put it simply baby food has a LOT more value in nutrition over Doritos. Think of baby food like a toddler version of MREs… thinking about it that was probably the guy’s thought process considering he was in the Navy…
It's also in a sauce like consistency, any remains are left in the jar and no crumbs as evidence. Dry food always leaves crumbs and these can also attract vermin if you can't clean or throw packaging away and have to stash the trash like he probably did.
Robber: Curses, foiled again. I'll just leave now. Good day. McDonalds: But what about the money? Robber: Screw the money! I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
The fact that this happened so close and that the prison is like 20 minutes from my house is WILD. I hope roof man doesn't come rob me at mcdonalds one day
When you first hear this guy’s story, you’re just waiting for that “point of no return” where he does something completely irredeemable. Yet, it never comes and you just end up liking this guy even more.
@@cawcawcaw9160 okay but no one died as a result of the fire and at no point did he ever cause any serious harm to anyone. I’m not saying this guy didn’t commit crimes or he shouldn’t face consequences for his actions, but he doesn’t seem like a terrible person.
@@NoPhlyZone20 that’s not the same as something like murder and that was done while he was trying to escape a sherif on the scene. He doesn’t seem like the type of guy to just punch women randomly. Again I’m not saying he didn’t do anything wrong or commit crimes, it’s just I don’t think he’s beyond the pale.
I once heard of a woman named Gertrude baniszewski, without getting into her crime too much she only spent 19 years in prison which is insane compared to the difference in severity of these crimes
How has this not been made into a feature-length film/biopic? It would make such a good film and could even have emotional moments depending on who directs. I've only just learnt the story but I am hooked to know more.
I mean its also the fact that he's sane or obsessed enough to say hey I'm not going to ruin myself just for one last big score, but ya now adays he might end up mental
When I was a kid my dad was the local pot dealer and had some very interesting friends to say the least. One of which was a guy nicknamed “Fried Clyde”. One year during Christmas time we were watching the news and saw a mugshot of Fried Clyde. He snuck down a chimney dressed as Santa and had become wedged. When the homeowner returned, she heard noises in the chimney and went to light a fire. He yelled at her and asked if she could call someone for him. She asked the name of the person in the chimney was and he told her Santa. According to the news, she dialed 911 and tortured Fried Clyde with lighting and putting out fire after fire until the police arrived. He was so close to death that he was in the intensive care unit for over a month. Never saw Fried Clyde again.
Honestly people can learn from this guy minus his lawbreaking and falling for the “girlfriend wants to meet up when things are on high alert trick” if he didn’t push over it with the robbery hold up at the end he could totally have a different end to his story. He’s good-hearted regardless of his crimes
We're a bunch of goofy goobers playing on weenie hut juniors mode in life. While this man is living on the edge 24/7 like a stealth game with nightmare difficulty.
4:50 I think his reasoning for going in through the roof was (and I could be wrong, they didn't confirm this in the video) that he was waiting for them to close. In fast food, you close the store and then the employees spend about an hour cleaning before heading home. If he hit in this timeframe, he could drop into a locked store, guaranteeing no interference from customers/police. Then he rounds up the employees (all except one) and puts them in the freezer. In fast food, restaurants typically use a safe to hold weekly earnings, which at the end of the week gets sent to the bank. If you time it right and pick a popular enough restaurant, there could be anywhere from $500 to $10,000 in the safe. So, with all the employees except one in the freezer, he has the one unlock the safe code, at which point he grabs the money and leaves. Anyone robbing the front end of a fast food place is an idiot, because money is consistently removed from the registers and placed in the safe. You're going to get maximum around $200 from robbing the registers. He was definitely going for the safes, as it's the only way he could've possibly gotten 100 grand from doing this, unless he robbed thousands of mcdonalds. This is me and my fiancee's theory about why he went in the way he did. My fiancee is a Dominos general manager and said 100% this would work as described above to rob her store if someone tried it. It's actually a pretty smart plan.
Dominos General manager? That’s some nice corporate coin. I married up, too. Lmao, I’m only kidding around, sort of, but your comment is exactly why I scroll the comments on RU-vid and other sites. Every once in awhile, you find an interesting comment, and learn something. Thank you.
This fucking chad not only made a Dexter' s laboratory in the walls of the store but lived of only on baby food. This guy, this fucking embodiment of a cartoon crackhead chad is just amazing.
Thanks Charlie. This is so interesting I had to watch the whole video on the other channel. One of the most interesting criminals I’ve learned about on RU-vid for sure.
I actually went to school with his son, who would tell us that his dad was a famous criminal who had escaped prison by hanging from the bottom of a truck and rolling out underneath (not sure if that part was mentioned, but you can look it up). Of course none of us really believed him, until the Toys R Us incident, and it was believed Jeffrey was headed back to California. My friend had a police officer attached to him in case Jeffrey tried to make contact with his son. That’s when we knew he really wasn’t bullshitting. Edit: also the irony that Jeffrey is also the name of the Toys R Us mascot
I think the only thing more epic than that would be if the kid who's dad worked for Nintendo wasn't lying and you really could see Lara Croft naked by doing the Konami code at midnight on Friday the 13th while gargling dog blood
Dude, the feds are totally gonna come by this guys prison cell, say "your country needs you" and hand him a fake id/passport, a get-out-of-jail-free card, and a ticket to europe.
You all need to know, Jeff is actually one of the most decent, high quality people you'll ever not get a chance to meet- The toys he stole were all things he donated to his girlfriend's church group for kids. We should all strive for greatness the way Jeffrey has. I pray he's doing ok in the pen & that it hasn't wrecked him too much. He's a good man and was one hell of an Army Ranger! We love and miss you Jeff- Stay strong & don't despair at these youtube dweebs making $ off your truth & your story. You are great!
Back in the late 90s I worked at a McDonald’s that was broken into through the roof 3 different times overnight. Mind you this was before they were open 24 hours. They got in, tried to lift this giant ass safe through the roof, failed, then tried to drill it open. All the times were failed attempts. Almost a decade later after I left, I heard from a worker there that I worked with then, that another attempt happened. After that the McDonald’s was torn down and rebuilt. It was supposedly to bring that store into a “modern” look, but me and the few people that knew of the break-ins were positive that was the real reason. I wonder if this was the guy? It was in Illinois on the border of Iowa.
Props to Charlie for giving people a reason to check out the video and creator before showing his reaction. A lot more classy than a lot of other reactors.
You know how when they show mugshots of some criminals, you can just see the evil in their eyes? This guy has the opposite. He just looks like a nice person.
@@littletechn8175 Yep. If they caught him with CP everyone would be like "Burn the witch!" while talking about how his "nice" face was the cover of an evil psychopath. Its a classic case of people seeing what they want due to bias.
McDonald's breakfast makes me blow out the toilet like seriously those full out blow it out son. It's good. I mean it's kind of good but I'll tell you what the consequence so just not worth it. It's usually the best time to eat it before you go on a plane cuz I like blowing out those small bathrooms if you know what I'm saying. God damn Lord have mercy who goes in there after me. Damn
There's also a story about some builders who, while building a shopping mall, built in a secret club house within the walls, with couches and even a breakfast nook probably. Would love to get your take on that one. I'm a new subscriber and seriously appreciate your take n delivery on these stories dude.
Oh my god watching these videos at night makes them so much better I'm just hysterically laughing so hard at the risk of annoying my family right before they all go to bed
Hiya, former 91B here. Going through the roof not only gives you the element of surprise it also gives you a bird's eye view of employees and camera placement...also, if pressed, you have a spare exit.
As a former Army 92G, I can absolutely say from personal experience that entering a target building, especially a McDonald’s or other restaurant/mess hall, from the roof is the best way of getting the drop on the employees and getting away with the goods.
I stayed the night at a toys r us as a kid in the 2000s and it’s genuinely one of my fondest memories. I slept on a crib mattress and watched a movie on the Mickey Mouse tv display in the break room. my dad worked a night shift there and couldn’t find a sitter. so I can imagine.
@@radradishradiator I believe he was an overnight stocker. but I think he was in a manager position as well. I’m not exactly sure since it was so long ago haha.
@@radradishradiator Just like any big retail store. They clean and restock overnight. You can have large pallets on the floor overnight without worrying about customers.
My boyfriend’s dad worked at a Dairy Queen back in the 90s. One night after closing, there was an armed robbery and the robber locked him and his two female coworkers in the walk-in freezer overnight. It’s a wonder that they didn’t freeze to death because they weren’t let out until they morning crew arrived and opened at 6:30AM. I’ll never forget about that, especially because I was working at a DQ when he told me that story. Wild stuff.
I live down the street from one of the McDonalds he hit Sacramento, but he also hit the McDonalds my sister worked at in Lodi. Her shift manager was told that reason he came through the roof was to avoid as many of the cameras in the lobby as possible.
wait he broke out of prison where he had 45 years to serve meaning he would get out around 2045 then went and robbed toys are us and got locked up again after burning down a dentist shop and his sentence is now over in 2036 did this mans find a cheat code to shortening his prison sentence lol
In reality you can break the rules and get away from it if nobody cares and you know the workers at toys r us certainly didn't care. Minimum wage life sucks.
The McDonald’s I work at doesn’t even have a separation between the counter and the lobby, you can walk straight to the back from the front door, let alone that there are 4 entrances to the building. It would be extremely easy to just walk around the counter and demand money from the person up there (if there even is one), and we are all instructed to not play heroes so were likely to just give it to you and call the cops after you leave.
This was in Charlotte NC, I remember watching about it on the news, I grew up there, except the toys r us was on Independence Blvd, not Monroe Rd. It also had an A&W restaurant in the parking lot that eventually became a Chinatown bus stop
@@Composty_lol Well, not when he was in the military. He was probably traumatized from it and once he got out, started doing dangerous illegal shit just to cope. He wouldn't have been so considerate to the mcdonalds employees if all he cared about was the money. It was probably the "thrill of the heist" or something that drove him
@@Stryfe52 Yeah like Doom or Wolfenstein. I just wish I was in a pure hellscape scenario in where the only option I have is to kill everyone I see in the slim chance I make it out alive. Yep thats why games are popular... because we really wish we were in those situations and the game is as close as we can get. I just wish I was mowing down pedestrians and being chased by a whole city of police cars. You see, I dont play those games because its fun to immerse myself in an extreme, exiting and fantastical situation where my action are free of real life consequence and if I die I just get to restart again, I play them because I long for my actual life to be like that and its as close as I'll ever get. Is that the point you where trying to make? Lol so stupid.
That was probably the safest toys r us in the world. Imagine what would happen if there was an active shooter in there. He would of seen them with his cameras, repelled down, and disarmed them before they could try anything.
This guy is honestly a badass, part of me wants him to get an out by being recruited by the government or something. He could work wonders if he used his powers for good instead of evil. It's like he watched a bunch of spy films and said "I want to do this", but he actually followed his dreams
Dude honestly sounds like a tortured soul. I know a vet who is so far gone he never came home from war in his mind and his body sadly kept moving but he didn’t. That’s why the baby food he wanted to live not live a life of luxury it’s actually tragic to think of. He needs some mental health while he’s in jail because I know that’s what he truly wants
If he didnt want to live a life a luxury he wouldnt have been playing with toys and bikes lol. He was just eating the baby food cuz it's the most nutritious thing in there. Everything else is junk food and candy. It's not that deep of a reason to eat baby food lol
@@Professorlicme8 Playing with toys is a life of luxury? Obviously he was doing that out of boredom cause what else is there for him to do inside a TOY store to pass time. As for riding bike they said he did it for exercise if you can listen.
