FOOT FOLLY TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE TOES

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

DATE: MONDAY, April 12, 1993                   TAG: 9304120252
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FOOT FOLLY TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE TOES
NOW HERE'S a fashion fad that law-enforcement officials probably hope will last more than a season or two:
Sneakers with battery-operated lights that flash with every step the wearer takes.
Seems the trendy shoes lit the way for sheriff's deputies in Charles City County to capture an alleged drug dealer who was on the lam last weekend.
Just after midnight last Saturday, the deputies stopped Alfred Acree's van to arrest him for possessing and selling cocaine. But the 20-year-old jumped out and ran into the dark woods.
He might well have escaped except for the fact that his toes were a'twinkle in his fancy new L.A. Gear footwear. He could run but he couldn't hide. "Every time he took a step, we knew exactly where he was," said a deputy.
When they collared him, he was also equipped with 12 bags of cocaine.
We're not sure what the sparkling caper says about today's haute couture or about the IQ of your run-of-the-mill criminals. But more enlightened crooks wanting to avoid self-incriminating fashion statements might do well to take a page out of Paul Simon's songbook. Stick to diamonds on the soles of your shoes.
The hapless suspect's story reminds us of the three Roanoke College students who last year stole the doors off the college's administration building, carried them up Mill Mountain and snapped a picture of themselves proudly posing with the hot edifices.
Then they took the film to a commercial developer and asked for double prints - which, not surprisingly, led to the doornappers' arrest.
To paraphrase Jean Jacques Rousseau, provided a man is not nuts, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB