911 call in Henson jewelry store incident: ‘I don’t feel comfortable letting them in’
Whitefish Bay, Wis., police have released recordings of the 911 calls made by an employee at Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers in the incident that prompted the Milwaukee Bucks’ John Henson to claim he’d been racially profiled during a trip to the jewelry store last week. The store’s president later apologized to the 24-year-old power forward/center for “what he experienced” and called the event a “misunderstanding,” but the recordings present a context that seems to suggest something closer to Henson’s read on the matter.
From Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV:
Henson called Schwanke-Kasten last Friday. He wanted to buy his first Rolex. Little did he know, his call was prompting a call to police.
The transcript of that call to police, placed on the afternoon of Oct. 16:
Caller: We’ve just had a couple of suspicious phone calls lately at the store, and we’re just wondering if, for the next hour, one of the Whitefish Bay cops could park in front of the store until we close.
Dispatcher: What were the phone calls about?
Caller: They were just asking about what time we were going to close, and they just didn’t sound like they were legitimate customers.
Dispatcher: I’ll have someone stop by, and they can determine if anything more needs to be done, OK?
Caller: OK, that sounds great. Thank you. Bye.
Shortly thereafter, four people got out of a red Chevy Tahoe, with dealer-issued plates not registered to that vehicle, in front of the store and approached the locked door before leaving. More from WTMJ:
An officer in an unmarked squad car ran the dealer plates on Henson’s red SUV. They were from Kunes Country Ford-Lincoln, but a manager at the dealership could not determine who the car belonged to. The officer says he told the manager “four black males exited the vehicle.” To which the manager replied, “that’s not our normal clientele.”
Henson returned to the store on Monday, Oct. 19, prompting another call to police:
Caller: We had some suspects Friday. They had stolen plates on their cars. The officer told us if they came back, we’re supposed to call again. They’re at our front door now, and we’re not letting them in.
Dispatcher: What kind of suspects? Can you describe them? Males, females?
Caller: They’re — what are they? I didn’t see them. They’re two — one tall, one real tall, one short.
Dispatcher: Males?
Caller: Males. Black. African-American males.
Dispatcher: Is it the same suspects from last week, Friday’s incident?
Caller: They were here Friday at 5:30, when we closed.
Dispatcher: And they’re at the store?
Caller: One is in front of the store.
Dispatcher: What’s the address there?
Caller: 417 East Silver Spring. (whispers) Don’t, don’t do it.
Dispatcher: Is the door locked?
Caller: The doors are locked. […] They’re just at the door. They haven’t done anything, but they did have stolen plates on their car.
Dispatcher: How do you know that?
Caller: Because the officer that was here on Friday called to tell us that, and he said if they come back, we’re supposed to call. We haven’t let them in because we were closed when they were here on Friday.
The dispatcher then asks the caller for the number of the supposedly stolen dealer plates and for confirmation that it’s the same red Tahoe from the previous Friday.
Caller: I don’t see it. I am hiding in the office. I don’t want them to see me out there. We’re pretending like we’re closed. So no one is on the floor. We’re not opening the door. We’re just staying in the back. […] I’m looking at the monitor. They are at the front door, they’re looking in the window, they’re just kind of pacing back and forth. I don’t feel comfortable letting them in. I just really don’t at all. It seems bad to me.
As Henson and his associate continue to ring the store’s doorbell, the caller tells fellow employees not to answer it and to stay out of view. After confirming the events described in Friday’s call and tracing the allegedly stolen plates back to Kunes Country Ford-Lincoln of Delevan, Wis. — a dealership that Henson would later tell officers has a relationship with the Bucks organization and at which he has made personal appearances — officers arrive on the scene and question Henson, who told them he just wanted to look at a watch, and possibly by his first Rolex after recently inking a four-year, $44 million contract extension to stay with the Bucks.
Officers on the scene prompted dispatch to ask the Schwanke-Kasten employee to come to the front door.
Dispatcher: I have officers there. They’d like for you to come to the door, if you could, please.
Caller: … Why? I don’t feel like it. Why do I have to come to the door? Can the officer come to the back? I’m not going to the front door.
Dispatcher: OK, they’re going to come to the back. Can you meet them in the back, then?
Caller: Who is coming? The officer?
Dispatcher: The officers are out there with the subjects, and I have an officer that would like to speak with you […] now he’s going to go to the back door, per your request, OK?
Caller: OK. Thank you.
“After my officer informed the Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers employee that it was a Milwaukee Buck, the employee came to the front door and let them in,” Whitefish Bay Chief of Police Michael D. Young wrote in a two-page statement recounting the incident, which also noted that Schwanke-Kasten “has been the victim of robberies at their Milwaukee stores in the past [two] years” and that a Green Bay store selling Rolexes had been burglarized the day before Henson’s second visit. That burglar was a white man.
“The employee requested that an officer stand by as they looked at the Rolexes, our officers refused and left the store,” Young added. “The officers then left the area.”
Soon after, so did Henson.
After the release of the 911 recordings, a Schwanke-Kasten spokesperson told WTMJ that some of the store’s employees “had been victims of armed robberies in the past, and they were under the impression from police that the SUV was stolen,” while reiterating that “racial profiling is never acceptable, and we deeply regret how the circumstances unfolded.”
In a since-deleted Instagram post, Henson described the incident as “one of the the most degrading and racially prejudice [sic] things I’ve ever experienced in life and wouldn’t wish this on anyone.” Schwanke-Kasten president Tom Dixon responded with a statement saying there’s no excuse for how Henson was treated, that he believes “everyone — professional athlete or not — deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” and that he looked forward to the opportunity “to sit down directly with John Henson to look one another in the eye, shake hands, and apologize for what he experienced.”
He got that opportunity last Tuesday. Henson termed Dixon’s apology “sincere,” but said that concern over prior incidents “still doesn’t make it right for them to do what they did.”
“It’s unfortunate that I came at a time things were happening to the store, but I think steps could have been taken to prevent what happened,” Henson said, according to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Somebody could have come to the door and said, ‘Can I help you?’ I might have a watch and we might not be talking about this.”
– – – – – – –
Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
Stay connected with Ball Don’t Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, “Like” BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
