Adam Dougles, a former U.S. military captain who served in Afghanistan in 2019 said that he arrived home on Memorial Day weekend to find his American flag was missing.
“Memorial Day weekend — we’ve had people die while I was over there as well,” Adam told FOX 10. “It means a lot, I want to make sure that flag is out on Memorial Day weekend. To have it stolen is… I just couldn’t understand it.”
The flag was hanging just a few feet from his front door. It was attached to the home and he was quite confused on why it was gone. After reviewing his doorbell security camera footage, he noticed an uninvited guest was the reason for its disappearance.
A criminal is seen on the footage walking up to the flag and trying to take it off the flag pole. However, they are having trouble with it so they stop to grab a lighter to attempt to catch the flag on fire instead.
They have trouble with that as well so they try to remove the flag again and finally figure out how to do it. Moments later, they walk off-camera with it.
Adam reported the crime to the police and they scanned the area to see if they could find the flag or the person involved in the act but nothing was found. Even though they got away with their crimes for now, since then, Adam has decided to replace the flag.
“This one’s a little bigger than the last one too,” Adam said.
He said he’s just glad he didn’t have his other flag out that he got from his deployment in Afghanistan when the thief committed the crime. He gives more details about the incident in the video below. Check to hear more.