Texas antique dealers struggled to believe their eyes when surveillance footage revealed a shopper in a kilt furtively inserting display items up his bottom before returning them to the shelves.
Word spread quickly through the business community in Spring after the heavily-built man was first spotted at The Antique Gallery of Houston on February 8.
‘I had to watch it a couple of times to be sure I knew what I was looking at,’ Gallery manager Susan Golden told Fox 26 ‘I’ve seen quite a few things here, but not that.’
Mitchell C Vest, 60, was arrested on February 15 and charged with one count of criminal mischief for his treatment of items including a makeup brush, a ‘Rrestoration hardware piece’, an antique bottle opener and a ‘tobacco tent can.’
Police are still looking for a female companion who appeared to accompany him.
What Was Said About Mitchell
Golden said the man had been seen on several previous occasions at the 85,000-square-foot shop, often loitering for hours without making any purchases.
She called police on February 10 after seeing him take the makeup brush and hardware piece, ‘shove both items up his anus, then return the items to the shelf’.
He Did it Again Somwehere Else
Later that day he appeared at the nearby Curiosity Shop doing the same thing with the bottle opener and tent can.
‘Both Complainants advised they had to throw away the items that were used in this incident due to feces (being) on them,’ an affidavit states.
‘Both provided the video surveillance of the incidents, and both wished to pursue charges.’
After his description was circulated, horrified dealers as far away as Galveston and Tomball realized he had also been in their shops.
By February 15 deputies had received calls from ‘multiple concerned citizens’ about the man who they said was ‘observed selecting items from multiple vendors and placing the selected items in his rectum’.
The male was then observed removing the items and placing them back on the shelves,’ Constable Mark Herman of the Haris County Police Department reported.
‘During further investigation, Constable Investigators were able to positively identify the male as Mitchell Vest.
