SPRINGFIELD, MO — It didn’t take long for the Springfield, MO police department to figure out who the so-called “sex toy bandit” was. After all, it’s not the first time he’s broken into adult shops and walked out with merchandise. It’s apparently just something that he does when he gets too high on meth. That’s the story that 36-year-old Daniel Edward Ray is telling, anyway. Given that his fingerprints and blood were found at all the shops – and his image was obvious on the various surveillance cameras that caught his work on film – he didn’t have much of a choice.
Of course, calling his ex-girlfriend and confessing to the crime didn’t help, either.
Ray, a paroled felon, has now been charged with three counts of second-degree burglary, was arrested at 3:00pm Wednesday at his job at Springfield Iron and Metal, thanks to a trip from Tara Simmons. It was Simmons who remembered that Ray had “mental issues with sex toys and pornographic material” in addition to fitting the description of the suspect.
When combined with a Tuesday night telephone conversation during which Ray confessed to Simmons that he had robbed Victoria’s Palace, Cosmic Fish, and Adam & Eve, the case against him was pretty much closed.
That doesn’t mean that Ray didn’t initially deny his involvement in spite of all the evidence and the fact his damaged dark purple Dodge Caravan looked like just the kind of vehicle that might be good at smashing through shop windows. Some time after booking, however, Det. Kevin Shipley reports that Ray “claimed that at the time of the incident he was very high on meth, which he claimed causes him to do crazy things that involve sex toys and pornographic material and claimed to be ‘sick in the head.’”
Given that Ray was a felon on parole at the time of the latest robberies, it is likely that he will face additional penalties. He had been released in November after having served at least 40-percent of concurrent 10-year sentences for second-degree burglary and tampering, according to Brian Hauswirth, a representative for the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Ray, how has previous drug-related convictions, as well, may be ordered to serve the remainder of his earlier sentences.
