Board Upholds Dismissal Of Shoplifting Firefighter -- Mercer Island Man Says Tag-Switch Was `Cry For Help'

MERCER ISLAND - The coat that ended Dennis Jones' firefighting career wouldn't have even fit him.

The $150 coat he paid $40 for was a woman's coat, Jones said, but it wouldn't have fit his wife, either.

"It had no purpose or logical value," said the 43-year-old Jones, who was fired from the Mercer Island Department of Public Safety shortly after after being caught switching the price tag on the coat at Lamonts in Factoria. "The coat was for no one."

Jones appealed the department's decision to fire him, saying the theft was a "cry for help."

Last night, three volunteers who make up the Mercer Island Civil Service Commission decided to back Jones' termination.

Jones said he was disappointed by the ruling. Diagnosed by a psychologist, Jones said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by the death of an 84-year-old man whose pajamas had caught fire. The man, who was heating milk in the early hours of Dec. 7, was already severely burned when Jones and other firefighters arrived.

The next day, Jones was caught by a security guard at Lamonts who said he saw the firefighter switching the price tags. Jones faces a charge of theft in a few weeks.

Mercer Island's chief of public safety, Jan Deveny, said he was pleased with the commission's decision.

"It's a matter of trust," Deveny said. "What if someone you cared about was having a heart attack, and you had to think `is someone going to steal something' before you called for help?"

But Jones' psychologist, Stephen Langer of Olympia, insisted his client is not a common criminal.

He said Jones was acting out with the intention of getting caught. Some of those who have the disorder, he said, are unable to ask for assistance in a conventional way.

Langer said he has treated two police officers with similar symptoms who also shoplifted.

One officer, dressed in his full uniform, took a box of baked goods in front of a security camera. The other put breath mints into his pocket in view of a store employee.

Jones, who lives in the small town of Ronald, Kittitas County, with his wife and two children, worked for the Bellevue Fire Department for eight years before getting the Mercer Island job four years ago. He said he decided to become a firefighter after he saved a man who was choking in a restaurant in 1980.

Jones' attorney, Deana Pollard, said he will likely appeal the decision.