--- title: Local Crime Disrupted by Food: Tater Tots Help Stop Burglary description: A California man fell asleep after eating tater tots during a botched robbery attempt last week, police said canonical: https://time.com/3836003/man-falls-asleep-during-robbery/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-26T20:12:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:19:08.911Z og:title: Man Sidetracked by Tater Tots During Suspected Robbery Attempt og:description: The man was awoken when a woman tried to escape her home, police say og:url: https://time.com/3836003/man-falls-asleep-during-robbery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Sidetracked by Tater Tots During Suspected Robbery Attempt twitter:description: The man was awoken when a woman tried to escape her home, police say twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Man Sidetracked by Tater Tots During Suspected Robbery Attempt  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 26, 2015 8:12 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 26, 2015 8:12 PM UTC A suspected burglary attempt in California went awry last week when authorities [say](http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Petaluma-burglar-eats-tater-tots-falls-asleep-on-6220421.php) the man got side-tracked by, of course, tater tots. A homeowner in Petaluma went downstairs Thursday afternoon and found an unfamiliar man, identified by police as James Adams, asleep on her sofa after he apparently enjoyed a snack of frozen tater tots, the San Fransisco [_Chronicle_](http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Petaluma-burglar-eats-tater-tots-falls-asleep-on-6220421.php)reports. After calling the police, she tried to leave her house but accidentally awoke the man. Adams, 44, who was said to have a long criminal history, was apprehended by authorities as he tried to leave the yard. \[[_SF Chronicle_](http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Petaluma-burglar-eats-tater-tots-falls-asleep-on-6220421.php)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3836003/man-falls-asleep-during-robbery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3836003/man-falls-asleep-during-robbery/"},"headline":"Man Sidetracked by Tater Tots During Suspected Robbery Attempt","datePublished":"2015-04-26T20:12:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:19:08.911Z","description":"The man was awoken when a woman tried to escape her home, police say","url":"https://time.com/3836003/man-falls-asleep-during-robbery/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","Bizarre"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3836003/man-falls-asleep-during-robbery/","name":"Man Sidetracked by Tater Tots During Suspected Robbery Attempt"}}]}] ```