Police nab Cliff’s Bait Shop thief

By Brandi Makuski

Plover police say they’ve nabbed their man in the Cliff’s Bait & Tackle robbery. 

Police Chief Dan Ault on Friday afternoon said the case had been solved, in no small part thanks to social media. 

“Something like 52,000 people saw that post,” Ault said, referencing the department’s plea for help from the public in identifying the suspect, who was captured in a grainy surveillance video from the area. Ault said the video surveillance inside the store wasn’t working properly at the time of the Sept. 1 robbery. 

Police said the store owner, Helen Gollon, was worried she may have to close the 60-year-old self-serve store after the thief took about $1,000 in tackle. 

“This is a great example of the community and the police working closely together to resolve crime within the village, and I’d like to thank everybody involved,” Ault said. 

Ault said when the department announced the theft on Sept. 2, it seemed to strike a chord in the Plover community. Area residents offered Helen Gollon donations, someone launched a GoFundMe campaign, and others even offered to repair the store’s video surveillance system free of charge. 

“It really demonstrated the best of the community with how they rallied behind her,” he said. “It was solved in a pretty quick period of time.”

The suspect, who Ault would describe only as a juvenile male, will be cited for retail theft. The boy was caught during the course of the investigation, he added. 

Cliff’s Bait Shop is owned by Helen Gollon, the widow of Plover figurehead Clifford “Cliff” J. Gollon, who died in 2013. Helen Clifford keeps the shop running in her husband’s memory.