Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 2, 1991                   TAG: 9102020356
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SEARCH FOR COAT WAS ON THE BUTTON

As an assistant U.S. attorney in Roanoke, investigating a criminal offense is his business.

So tracking down the man who swiped his coat in mid-December served as "an enjoyable little mystery," he said.

Sorenson's black-and-white herringbone-patterned coat with a pair of brand-new leather gloves stuffed into a pocket was stolen from the Roanoke City Library.

The coat, 3 years old, cost $140 new and the gloves $20.

"It was embroiled in me that I would get that coat back," he said.

Sorenson contacted the Roanoke Rescue Mission, at a police officer's suggestion. Nothing.

So Sorenson - in the near-freezing weather of mid-December - remained coatless. That is, until just after New Year's.

Sorenson found an old photo of himself wearing the coat and took it to the Rescue Mission thrift store. The mission didn't buy clothing, he was told.

Sorenson walked a couple doors down to the Rescue Mission office. A counselor said he'd never seen the coat but would keep an eye out for it.

That afternoon, the counselor called Sorenson. Another counselor who worked nights had seen a man at the Rescue Mission kitchen wearing a coat that matched Sorenson's.

Sorenson got a physical description of the man: 5-foot-5, 130 pounds, white, with tattoos on both arms, spiked hair.

Sorenson, who is 6-1, immediately wondered if the man's coat appeared bulky or was dragging the ground. The coat appeared to fit just fine, the counselor said.

The counselor also remembered that the man rode the Garden City bus route and suggested Sorenson talk to the bus driver on the route.

The driver said he knew someone who fit the description, a man who rented an apartment from the owner of a Southeast Roanoke coin-operated laundry.

Sorenson got the name of the owner of the laundry from a woman who worked at the video store next door. He called the owner, who said a man fitting the description rented an apartment from him.

The owner agreed to check on the man, at Sorenson's request, and found a coat matching Sorenson's, hanging on a rack in the apartment.

The owner told the man he knew someone who had a coat just like it, and that it had been stolen. The man handed over the coat, which had been deeply hemmed with crude stitching, and the gloves.

"The whole thing worked out really well," Sorenson said, pulling copies of thank-you letters from a file marked "Stolen Coat." His letter to the Rescue Mission included a $25 donation.

"It was really kind of an adventure, kind of a puzzle, kind of enjoyable," he said.

Sorenson didn't press charges against the man, who he learned from police was 18 or 19 years old, living on his own and unemployed.

"I was satisfied to get my coat back," he said. "If some guy took a coat because he needed a coat to be warm, I'm sensitive to that."