Ashland resident lured ‘Shoe Bandit’ by nailing shoes to her porch, reports show

ASHLAND — Shoes had gone missing from her Evergreen Street porch for a month. So she took the matter into her own hands.

Police reports show Lorie Kamps on Evergreen Street lured the so-called Shoe Bandit to her porch by nailing a pair of “cheap black shoes” to it.

It worked.

On June 28, 2024, around 4:15 a.m., her phone pinged because it detected movement on her porch. But it still wasn’t enough to immediately catch the Shoe Bandit, a nickname given by social media users.

The police report represents one of six filed since June 2024. However, the recent arrest of Thomas Norris could end the investigation.

Ashland police arrested Norris, 52, on July 13. He faces a third-degree burglary charge and remains in the Ashland County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

Complainants reported multiple missing shoes, valued cumulatively at around $500. But two complainants mentioned the issue of missing shoes had been occurring before they filed an incident report.

All the incidents took place in the early morning hours and within about a one-mile radius from each other, according to reports. 

A creative solution

Kamps reported she had been noticing missing shoes from her porch for a month. She told her neighbors about it and they shrugged it off and laughed, thinking maybe an animal was taking them.

Finally, she told her father, who had worked in law enforcement. He encouraged her to file a police report.

Before doing that, however, she decided she’d try to catch him herself.

“I was having a little fun with him and trying to catch him for the police,” she said, knowing her doorbell camera might do the trick.

At one point, she left out a cheap pair of shoes that were missing the next morning. She also placed dog poop in one of the pairs, and then put Kroc sandals on top of them.

Kamps said he took the shoes with poop in them. The Krocs?

“He moved them nicely off and put them on my steps,” she said of the Krocs, laughing.

But there was nothing in the videos. The particular camera only turns on if the movement lasts more than five seconds.

That’s when she got creative.

She bought some three- or four-inch nails, a cheap pair of shoes and nailed them to her porch.

“They were nailed so good that the shoe popped up in the back,” Kamps said.

That did the trick, according to police.

“(She) said she got a notification on her phone of movement on the front porch at roughly 4:15 a.m. The camera picked up what appears to a be male, slender build, with sweats, a sweatshirt with hood on, a ball cap and no gloves. 

“The male attempted to grab the shoes but could not with them being nailed to the porch. The camera cuts out when the male still has his hands on the shoes. The shoes were left on the porch and were not successfully stolen,” reads the police report.

Police then put up a photo from the video in the squad room.

At some point, he came back. He took the nailed shoes.

And a month later the Shoe Bandit struck Kamps’ porch again. The report, filed with Ashland police on July 28, 2024, reveals the suspect stole a pair of kids-sized American Eagle shoes, valued at $1.

In all, the Shoe Bandit allegedly stole around six pair of shoes from Kamps porch, including her orthopedic shoes that she uses for daily work, which she valued at around $100.

People have been resorting to social media since at least February 2024 to catch the person snatching shoes off Ashland porches. Over time, social media users nicknamed the culprit “Shoe Bandit.”

Police suspected another person initially. 

According to an incident report filed June 7, 2024 — the first of six incident reports to mention stolen shoes — an officer mentioned another man as a suspect “in similar incidents and is known to walk to and from his residence.” 

But the officer wasn’t able to contact him and locate stolen shoes. The suspect “never answered the door and none of the stolen items were located,” the officer wrote in his report.

Is Norris the Shoe Bandit?

Authorities believe Norris is, in fact, the so-called Shoe Bandit. Ashland County Prosecutor Chris Tunnell said the matter remains under investigation, but that he’s not aware of a “shoe theft ring” in Ashland.

“It appears to be isolated to one suspect,” he said.

Ashland police Capt. Craig Kiley has estimated officers discovered around 100 pairs of shoes in Norris’ house while they executed a search warrant before his arrest.

When asked if Norris might face additional charges, Kiley said he couldn’t comment on that.

Court records show Norris has another hearing in August. His Columbus-based attorney, Zachuary Meranda, was not immediately available to comment on behalf of his client.