Tennessee fans rob Walmart to settle $150 gambling debt

Brandon Lee Henry's first mistake was having faith in Derek Dooley, Tyler Bray and Tennessee, which went into Starkville for last Saturday's game against Mississippi State as a three-point underdog.

Henry thought that his Volunteers had this one. He knew it. He was so secure in this faith, in fact, that he bet UT to cover the spread. That was his second mistake.

The final: Bulldogs 41, Vols 31. It was a close game, just not close enough for Henry's gambling tastes.

So what do you do when you lose a bet? You pay up, of course. But what do you do when you lose a bet and don't have the money to meet your debt? Such was Henry's dilemma.

To address his financial concerns, Henry and his girlfriend, Latisha Lamson, went to their local Walmart (in Cookeville, Tenn.) and stole $756 of worth of goods, hoping to pay back his debt with a vacuum cleaner, a television, a Blu-ray player and a pair of sleep pants.

The Cookeville Herald-Citizen has the details:

"Around 2 p.m. yesterday, Walmart officials called police and reported that several items, including a TV set, had been stolen by a man who was seen running out of the store with a shopping cart containing a flat-screen TV and several other items in boxes, according to the officer's report.

"Store officials did a quick inventory to determine what all had been stolen in the incident, and they listed a Shark Navigator vacuum cleaner, a 39-inch TV, a Blu-ray player, and a pair of sleep pants."

The sleep pants were for personal use, I imagine, and not to settle any gambling debt.

When asked where he had hid his haul, Henry told Cookeville police that had placed the boxes in the woods and given the goods to two individuals.

Asked why he had stolen the items, Henry told police that "he had lost a bet on the Tennessee Vols game on Saturday."

"He stated he gave the TV and Blu-ray player to the subject he lost the bet to. He stated he owed the subject $150," according to the police report.

The vacuum cleaner was stolen for a friend's wife because "she had said she wanted one."

According to the Herald-Citizen, Henry and Lamson were booked into jail with bond for each set at $5,000. How much do you want to bet that… nah, forget it.