Smoke break lands employee in jail

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Just after midnight on October 26th, McDonald's employee Jarry Ratliff unknowingly made a life changing decision.  Investigators say he lit a cigarette inside a smoke-free Denbigh McDonald's and puffed away not knowing a Newport News Police Officer just pulled up.

"So he's like, well you know, I could just go on by and say I didn't see it or I can get out and talk to him," says Lt. Mike Grinstead of the Newport News Police Department.

Grinstead is the acting commander of the North Precinct and he says he's proud of the decision his third shift officer made next.

"He decided to get out and talked to him, run him and voila, you know, he's got nine felonies, so good job on his part."

What should have been a $25 fine quickly turned into nine felonies.

"It's not a usual occurrence," says Grinstead.

Yet a police officer used his training and quickly learned Ratliff allegedly lived as a fugitive for five years.  Norfolk police say they wanted the 27 year-old behind bars after being accused of robbing two people at gunpoint outside an East Ocean View motel in 2004.

Investigators say this says a lot about the work Newport News Police Officers do everyday.

"Meeting with people, talking with people about what the problems are, what the concerns are and then when the see violations actually getting out and confronting them and this is what it lead up to," says Grinstead.

Ratliff declined our request for an on camera interview. He's now being held in the Norfolk City Jail on 9 felony charges including abduction and kidnapping and robbery.