Arrests easier than taking candy

I WILL make fun of this situation when I don't know the facts.

Arrests easier than taking candy
Wrapper trail leads police to group with baby
BY JENNIFER BAKER | JBAKER@ENQUIRER.COM
The Enquirer
April 11, 2008

How do you catch a suspect in a candy store break-in?

Follow the candy wrappers.

That's exactly what Cincinnati police did after the Peter Minges & Son candy store downtown was broken into early Thursday.

The trail led them to Christine Ruther, 19, of Green Township. She is charged with taking her newborn child along while she broke into the West Court Street store and swiped about $500 in candy, police said.

Ruther was charged with child endangering and breaking and entering. Also charged with breaking and entering were Terrance Ware, 18, of Northside; Rebecca Gamble, 18, of Blue Ash; and Dwight Reed, 22, of Walnut Hills.

The group was arrested a few blocks away at Fourth and Race streets after police followed a trail of candy and wrappers. Police said Ruther had her 7-week-old daughter with her.

Ruther told police she and her baby accompanied three people to the break-in and watched.

She also told officers they used the baby stroller to transport the candy.

Leslie Betts, manager of the 103-year-old family candy distributing business, said the quartet stole every kind of candy imaginable: "Reece cups, Skittles, Twizzlers, you name it."

Betts said that she learned about the break-in when Cincinnati police officers called her at home at around 1:30 a.m.

"You've been broken into," she said police told her. "We're guarding the Swedish fish. Hurry. Come down. We can't leave the store. It's wide open."

Police also called Ruther's mother, Amy Ruther, and asked her to come pick up the baby at District 1 police headquarters in the West End, Amy Ruther said.

She said she was shocked and upset over her daughter's arrest.

"She has some problems and we have been trying to help her for a long time through doctors," Amy Ruther said of her daughter. "When someone is that age you can't force them to do anything. People shouldn't make fun of the situation when they don't know the facts. She is a good person."

She said Christine Ruther and the baby live with her and her husband, but they haven't been able to reach Christine this week.

Amy Ruther said she doesn't think the break-in was planned because the baby was with her daughter.

"I love that baby. She is a beautiful baby," she said. "That's one thing: Christy did really take good care of that baby until now."

Brian Gregg, spokesman for Hamilton County Department of Job & Family Services, said the agency, which oversees children services and foster care, is investigating.