Update: Robert Plant is on the lam once again. A B.C. judge granted him bail and he hasn’t been seen since. Sigh. I knew I would be writing about him again…
Escaped con refuses to mend his ways; Wanted man keeps returning to crime cycle
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sherri Zickefoose
Calgary Herald©
But while they were driving an unhandcuffed Plant around the city in the back of an unmarked police car, he was crafting a getaway plan.
In a move that can only be described as gutsy — and one that surely haunts the two detectives he fooled — Plant asked to borrow a cellphone to call his lawyer.
The officers gave him privacy to make the call.
Soon, the sound of a roaring engine filled the street. And then, like a scene in a Hollywood action movie, Plant leaped from the detectives’ car and threw himself into the back of a moving pickup truck.
He’s still at large and free again to lead a life of crime.
Who is Robert Scott Plant? And why won’t he go straight?
“He’s so familiar with that lifestyle that he doesn’t have the skill set to do anything else,” said Mount Royal College criminologist Janne Holmgren.
“He’s 44 years old. Typically, we see them burn out earlier. We don’t think of that as the age group of breaking into people’s houses or people who need stuff. We’re settled by that age.”
Except for a clean streak between 1982 and 1990, Plant has been like a human boomerang arcing back into trouble.
His crimes are nearly always property-related and net short sentences. Get caught, go to jail. Repeat. Or as the parole board says, “go back into your crime cycle.”
But Plant has a violent streak when he’s cornered. He’s turned on police, store security guards and even bystanders.
In 1997, while on a shoplifting spree, Plant stole $894 worth of clothing from a Zellers store. He pummelled a security guard in the parking lot to escape.
The next day, he drove into a three-year-old girl and knocked her down trying to escape North Hill mall in a stolen Honda. The girl’s father tried to jump into the car’s sunroof to stop Plant, and ended up being punched.
A security guard was also run over as Plant was backing up to make his getaway.
Police caught Plant a month later with $14,000 worth of jewelry, cash and electronics stolen from a home.
Fast-forward to last month: Plant was accused of punching a Pump Hill woman in the face when she caught him red-handed in her home March 5.
When police raided a southwest storage facility, they found more than 2,000 stolen items from as many as 80 house break-ins.
Plant’s parents raised him in a “pro-social environment,” which is institution talk for a home with rules and values.
Despite Plant’s drug addiction and growing convictions, his parents remained supportive and agreed to accept his jail house phone calls in 2003.
“However, they do not want to continue enabling your negative lifestyle,” the national parole board report reads.
But by 2006, their patience had seemingly worn through. “Attempts by your parole officer to contact your parents were futile.”
Plant suffers from a debilitating disease requiring medication, although his illness is blanked out on a parole board report.
He has lived with two women. The first he admits physically abusing. He blamed stress caused by “a significant relationship breakup” as a reason for his crimes.
In 2004, he told the parole board his plans included living with a new girlfriend.
He tried to appeal his 1990 conviction for growing pot plants in a Glengarry basement.
Oddly, the police constables checking out a Crime Stoppers tip were using Plant’s own modus operandi. They knocked on the front door and when no one answered, they went around to the back. They were chased from the premises by a resident who just arrived, but returned with a warrant.
When they raided the suite, they found Plant and 119 seedlings. Back to jail he went.
He’s known as a high-risk offender. Within weeks — once it was just five days — he’s been known to violate parole and conditions of his release. He simply walks away from half-way houses.
“They’re set in their ways and prefer their life of crime,” said Murray.
So how did a man with a history of disappearing and a record for resisting arrest charm two of Calgary’s finest on his path to freedom?
“There was no indication he was going to be an escape risk,” said Staff Sgt. Neil Murray. “We’re quite sure he had this planned. If someone wants to get away, they’re going to do it.”
Plant’s plan unfolded after a few hours of driving around with the officers on April 3. He tricked them by suddenly refusing to co-operate and demanded to call a lawyer.
“We have a duty and responsibility by law to give him privacy and a phone to use,” said Murray.
Police routinely call on jailed suspects for their help, they say. They can add to their clearance rate for unsolved crimes by getting offenders to claim responsibility. It also helps victims gain closure, Murray said.
The two detectives are weathering the situation, he said. “They were very upset and then there were the jibes you take. We’re practical jokers. It’s trying. They’d love to see this guy in custody and put away where he belongs.”
