The Burglar

    Law Enforcement is a heated topic these days. Although I typically try to keep my opinions to myself on this blog, I have to admit I feel bad for conscientious, ethical, community-minded police officers whose reputations are tarnished by the careless, unethical and sometimes criminal actions by others in their profession. This is why I hesitate to tell this story. It is the story of one man, a Fairfax police officer, who went from law enforcer to law breaker.

    David Lee Planitz was born July 2, 1928 to Robert and Grace Planitz. He had an older brother and grew up in eastern Hamilton County, living in Mt. Lookout, Mariemont, and Newtown. In 1942, Robert Planitz died suddenly of a coronary occlusion. In September 1945, David enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served until June 1947. Grace Planitz remarried and in 1950 David was living in Newtown with his mother, brother, stepfather, and stepbrother. Planitz married in 1951, but was divorced within two years.

    Planitz worked as a truck driver after his discharge from the Navy, but became a Cincinnati police officer in January 1952. By 1957, he was a motorcycle officer.

David Planitz modeling a new police motorcycle helmet

January 17, 1957, Cincinnati Enquirer

    A June 1958 Cincinnati Enquirer article reported that Planitz “wrenched his spine” and had been temporarily unable to move his upper extremities. According to the report, Planitz was removing his motorcycle from his garage when he noticed an oil spot on the pavement. He sustained the injury when he bent over to look at the spot. Planitz left the Cincinnati Police Department in October 1958.

     Planitz married for the second time in the late 1950s. The couple bought a house on Roberts Street in Fairfax in 1962. In the early 1960s, Planitz worked as a Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy for several months before joining the Fairfax Police Department in 1963. David Planitz’s second marriage ended in late 1963, but the couple remarried within a matter of months.

     As a Fairfax officer in the 1960s, Planitz would have been involved in some of the most high-profile cases in the village’s history, the Debbie Dappen abduction and murder, the disappearance of Johnny Hundley and Jimmy McQueary, and the Troy Lee Carr murder. He moved up in the department and achieved the rank of sergeant. Fairfax Police Chief Paul Ferrara later described Planitz as “outspoken,” but considered him “a pretty good policeman.”

     David Planitz and his wife divorced a second time in March 1970. Planitz continued to live in his Roberts Street house.

     On November 30, 1970, a citizen reported to Cincinnati police that two men were tampering with the night deposit box at the Fifth Third Bank at Madison Road and Markbreit Avenue in Oakley. Police found two men sitting in a car in front of the bank. Three heavy duty nylon ropes with hooks attached were also found the in car. The two men were arrested and charged with entering a coin receiving device. The car was registered to David Planitz.

     Interestingly, the same bank reported the theft of $200 from the night deposit box exactly one week earlier. On another occasion, the bank found nylon rope and a hook attached to a deposit bag in the night depository.

     Cincinnati and Fairfax police conducted a joint investigation and obtained a search warrant for Planitz’s home and car. It turned out that this wasn’t David Planitz’s first involvement with theft. On December 1, 1970, Planitz was charged with possession of burglary tools and burglary in relation to an October 23 burglary at Prudential Life Insurance Agency in Madisonville in which a safe was stolen. Chief Paul Ferrara suspended Sergeant Planitz pending the outcome of the case.

David Planitz, December 3, 1970 Cincinnati Enquirer

    The following day, Planitz pleaded not guilty to both charges. The judge set bond at $500 for each charge. After court that day, he apparently went to one of his favorite hangouts, the Royal Family Billiard Lounge in Oakley Square (a hop, skip, and jump from the aforementioned Fifth Third Bank), for a little relaxation. However, Cincinnati police interrupted the fun at about 6:00 p.m. when they arrested Planitz on a breaking and entering charge filed by Milford police in connection to a November 19 break-in at Ray Steidle Pontiac. On December 14, he pleaded not guilty to that charge in Clermont County Court.

     The Fairfax Police Department was apparently taking some flak over the Planitz case. The Cincinnati Enquirer published an opinion piece titled “In All Fairness” asking citizens to be fair to Fairfax police rather than ridicule them. The same department being criticized had investigated and arrested one of their own and deserved residents’ support. The piece said, "Whenever one succumbs to the temptations of condemning an entire group or class of people because of the transgressions of one of its members, he is giving in to intolerance, bias and irrationality."

     At the beginning of the new year, David Planitz was facing three felony charges and suspended from his job as a Fairfax police sergeant. If you think he stayed under the radar for a while, you would be wrong. On January 2, 1971, Blue Ash police were on a routine patrol at 5:25 a.m. when they saw a man run from the King Kwik store on Hunt Road. The police lost the man, but saw a car pull away from the scene. They stopped the car, which was occupied by David Planitz and an 18-year-old woman. They were arrested and charged with possession of burglary tools and attempted burglary.

     David Planitz submitted his resignation from the Fairfax Police Department to Chief Ferrara on January 18, 1971, saying it was for the best of the department. I doubt that many people would dispute that.

     On February 26, Planitz’s defense attorney filed a motion for dismissal in relation to the attempted burglary at the Blue Ash King Kwik, which the judge granted. The Blue Ash police had no evidence of a crime at the time they stopped Planitz and asked to see his driver’s license. Police found what they considered burglary tools in Planitz’s car, but hadn’t found evidence of an attempted burglary until later.

     In the early morning hours of March 8, 1971, Cincinnati police were patrolling Erie Avenue in Hyde Park when they noticed footprints in the snow leading to the Saybrook Tavern. An officer went to the rear of the building and saw two men run from the tavern. The men ignored orders to stop and the officer fired two shots, missing the men. One of the men, David Planitz, surrendered after a foot chase. Police pursued the other man for three miles with a canine officer and helicopter joining the chase, but he got away. The Saybrook Tavern’s safe had been breached and $950 was taken. Planitz was charged with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling. His accomplice surrendered a couple of days later; he had been a suspect because his car was found at the scene.

     In March 1971, Planitz sold his house on Roberts Street. His association with Fairfax was over; his life of crime was not.

David Planitz, March 8, 1971, Cincinnati Post

    On April 9, 1971, Planitz was a passenger in a car with another man when a Clermont County sheriff’s deputy pulled them over on State Route 125 near Batavia. Planitz was charged with possession of burglary tools. The other man was also charged with driving under suspension and driving an unsafe vehicle. Planitz was freed after posting the $10,000 bond.

     On May 2, Planitz and another man were pulled over by a Fairfax officer. Planitz was charged, again, with possession of burglary tools, as well as illegal possession of an amphetamine.

     On May 4, Planitz and four accomplices, all of whom were at least 20 years younger than he was, broke into the Heber Jones auto dealership in Middletown. They took a customer’s 1970 Cadillac, a stereo set, and tools. A safe was badly damaged, but the burglars didn’t make entry. The stolen car was recovered and the five suspects taken into custody in Bellevue in Huron County, Ohio. The five suspects were each charged with breaking and entering and grand larceny. Planitz was also charged in Bellevue for the theft of $150 in tools.

     In July 1971, Planitz pleaded guilty to the charges related to the Heber Jones robbery. The Butler County judge sentenced him to three concurrent terms in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Later, during the sentencing of Planitz’s accomplices, it came to light that at least two of them were drug dealers and another admitted to being an addict.

     In early November 1971, David Planitz was returned from the State Penitentiary to appear in Clermont County and Hamilton County courts. On November 2, he changed his plea to guilty for the charges related to the Ray Steidle Pontiac break-in. His Clermont County sentences would run concurrently with the terms imposed by Butler County. On November 3 in Hamilton County, he also changed his plea to guilty for the charges related to the Saybrook Tavern burglary. The prosecutor announced that the County was dropping the charges stemming from the May 2 traffic stop in Fairfax. 

     Planitz’s defense attorney blamed his problems on “speed and pills” and said he had been reformed in prison.

     A few years passed with no word of Planitz, who was presumably serving his time in the Ohio Pen. Unfortunately, we hadn’t yet heard the last of him. By September 1974, Planitz was facing more burglary-related charges. He was charged with breaking and entering, safecracking, and theft in connection with a July 1974 burglary at the Golden Rooster in Anderson Township. $4,000 had been taken from the safe. He was implicated by the testimony of his 16-year-old accomplice in Juvenile Court. Planitz was also arrested by Norwood police in July 1974 for possession of burglary tools when he was spotted leaving an apartment building carrying a suitcase containing acetylene tanks, a pry bar, and other suspicious items.

     Planitz ultimately pleaded guilty to charges related to the Golden Rooster burglary and the Norwood incident. His sentencing was delayed in February 1975 because he was in Veterans Hospital with a neck injury. Ultimately, he landed back in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

     David Planitz died at Franciscan Mt. Airy Hospital on September 17, 1978 at the age of 50.

     The question that plagues me as I write this is . . . Why? Why did a middle-aged veteran police officer turn to crime? Why and when did he begin abusing drugs? It all seemed to begin in late 1970. I have trouble believing that he was involved in any significant criminal activity before then – he was so very bad at burglary that he surely would have been caught. I can only hope that Planitz's accomplices, most of whom were significantly younger than him, went on to live productive lives.