Suspect Leaves Card, 24 Of Them, At Scene

Suspected burglar Stephen D. Foraker apparently thought his victims were an easy target.

The newspapers on the doorstep of Michael J. Smith’s Post Falls home were a “dead giveaway” that no one was home, Foraker told Post Falls Police Detective Dave Beck recently, according to police.

But Foraker, 24, might as well have planted a police homing device on himself last summer.

The burglar, in his haste to cram more goods into his pockets, left a stack of 24 business cards in the baby’s bedroom.

The Smiths found the cards for S&A Lawn Maintenance & Landscaping odd, particularly since their son had no landscaping needs.

Since his name was on the cards, Foraker made matters easy for Beck.

“I didn’t bother to call him. I sat and waited,” Beck said. That wait ended not long ago when the camera was pawned.

When Foraker’s name appeared on a copy of a pawn slip for a video camera, Beck called Smith. Sure enough, the camera was Smith’s.

The clincher was a video inside the camera that recorded baby Smith’s first steps and other priceless moments from the first year of the boy’s life.

Today, Foraker is in jail on a $50,000 bond.

Foraker didn’t recall the burglary, police say, until Beck mentioned the cards. Then Foraker got “a big grin,” Beck said.

Foraker’s memory problems stem from a confessed indulgence in “crank,” or methamphetamines, according to Post Falls police.

, DataTimes