SPOKANE, Wash. — In its 95 years, Wandermere Golf Course has been through a lot. Through most of it, there’s been co-owner Herb Brown.
"Sixty years,” he smiled. "[I've] been here all my life."
Though he got the shock of his life early Monday morning when he opened up shop, Brown says the alarm was going off when he stepped inside around 4 a.m. He went to turn it off and noticed shattered glass in the clubhouse door, then he noticed something else.
"There was a man laying on the floor in the lounge there and he says 'Hi Herb,' which startled me because I wasn't expecting anyone to talk to me while I was turning the alarm off,” he chuckled.
Even more startling: the man was wearing only a T-shirt.
Brown says the man was ‘moaning and groaning’ as he waited for police and paramedics. It was when they lifted him off the floor that Brown recognized him as a fixture of the area for more than a decade.
“He sells golf balls along the highway,” Brown said.
Customers coming and going into the clubhouse for a drink or some famous potato salad Tuesday had already heard the story; many also know of the man now believed to have broken in. Some commented they could hardly believe it.
"He tried to get in here but this is shatterproof glass,” Brown said, pointing out where the man tried to break through a side door.
The suspected burglar did manage to break out a window in the lounge.
"He used the umbrella,” Brown said. “It was all jagged glass, I'm surprised he didn't cut himself. But I think he slid down the umbrella the way he had it all laid out."
In all, the 55-year-old suspect, who was arrested by Spokane County deputies, did around $5,000 in damage. He now faces charges of burglary, theft and malicious mischief.
Brown and his long-time customers are still scratching their heads about the whole thing. He says while the man was trespassed from the clubhouse three months ago, he hadn’t been much of a problem for the 10 or 12 years he’d been in the area. Brown did not comment on why the man was trespassed.
He suspects the break-in had little to do with stealing; instead Brown believes the man may have been cold during the 42-degree evening. Though he took extra measures to warm up, if that’s the case.
"He had his own party in the other room,” Brown said. “He had a bottle of whiskey in there he drank three-fourths of, I think that's why he was laying on the floor there. Got in but he was too drunk to get out, couldn't get up."
Brown says it’s not the club’s first burglary. In fact, it’s the third in a couple of years. Once, a cash register was taken, but the suspects were caught after burying their getaway vehicle in a sand trap, employees say. In another instance Brown’s granddaughter recalled, the thieves pushed a stolen ATM through the glass door.
The family business is now looking into heightening security, like installing security cameras.
Brown says while it was unusual the naked burglar was known to him, he’s glad it wasn’t a complete stranger he stumbled on in the early morning hours.
"When he left he said, 'I'm sorry, Herb,’” Brown said. “So he knew what he was doing then."
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