| Tommy Whelan |
(continued)
Copyright © 2007, 2008 by Michael Domino
| Tommy had enough sense to lay low and stay out of sight for a month afterwards. Holding over half a million in the Godfather's wall coverings, his apartment became a shrine to his own accomplishment. The incredible story made the papers because Paulie's soldiers put word out on the street that the thief or thieves were wanted dead or alive. Detectives in the 41st precinct’s organized crime and racketeering unit picked up the scent, and the hunt was on to see who would catch the perpetrators first—the good guys or the bad guys. The cops wanted to avoid another body washing ashore on the East River, and the mobsters wanted to send a stiff message to the underworld not to mess with The Boss. The only clue was a size-10 Nike print stamped in the soft ground outside the window at the Castelano mansion. The cops made a plaster impression of it just in case they were lucky enough to find the owner of the sneaker before he showed up as a John Doe at the city morgue. After 45 days of inactivity and self-imprisonment, Tommy started to get antsy. Going through some of his loot, he came across the fur coat he had lifted from the music exec's home. Checking the pockets before he met the fence to trade the coat for cash, he came across the theater tickets. The show date was for the very next night, a Saturday. It did not take long for Tommy to arrange for a pretty young woman to accompany him to the hottest show in town. The ticket owners, still steaming over the violation to their home and the police department's ineptitude, decided that same night to do some detective work of their own. Intentionally arriving at the show 15 minutes late, the music exec and his wife, ticketless but well-known at the theater, were escorted to their seats by a burly security guard. Not surprisingly, the premium seats were occupied by one Tommy Whelan and his girlfriend. Trying to avoid a ruckus, the security guard politely asked Tommy to present the tickets, which he did promptly. Tommy claimed that the tickets were won at an auction and therefore he was unaware of their true origin. Back in the theater lobby, Tommy was apprehended by detectives of the 41st squad. At the station house, Tommy stayed quiet, but a search of his apartment produced one pair of Nike sneakers size 10, not to mention a stockpile of jewels, watches, and two hand-rolled paintings belonging to none other than the Boss of Bosses, Big Paulie Castelano. Tommy Whelan's life was temporarily saved by the cops. Outside, the mob would have eventually gotten to Tommy. Like all thieves sitting on hot property, Tommy's pants would have caught fire at some point. But, now, in his isolated jail cell, Tommy Whelan knew that it was just a matter of time before he would get a special visit from Paulie Castelano to make him pay for his mistake, twice over. |