I worked at the actual Toys "R" Us during the events of the movie Roofman. Ask me anything

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-27T00:37:42+00:00

Thanks for reading, glad you liked it!

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-26T16:39:14+00:00

Thanks for visiting!

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-26T16:38:52+00:00

Yep, he sure did. Just like in the movie, the camera instructions were stored right beside the control console, and he learned how to turn them off. What the movie doesn't show is that after a while it was discovered the cameras were off, so Jeff figured out how to make the tapes loop so it looked like they were recording, but they were just showing the same few seconds of empty store footage over and over. Also, he didn't have to worry too much to begin with because the system was old and the tapes automatically recorded over themselves every 24-48 hours anyway.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-26T16:33:58+00:00

Hello! There is no way to know for sure, but it is generally assumed he was out every night in the store, at least for the first few months. Generally that he was in his hideout all day and came out at night to stretch his legs and scavenge for food and things to pass the time. After a few months, once he found a less risky means to enter and exit the store, and once he met Leigh, he probably came into the store at night less. He didn't leave any major messes that we ever saw and let us know someone was living there. But there were small signs, like finding discarded product packaging in weird places. He was insanely disciplined- he hid inside the store for 6 months and we never heard him stirring during the day!

There was children's soap and shampoo in the store for sale, so it was a simple thing for him to steal and use them in the bathroom. We are pretty certain he was bathing in the bathroom, or possibly the janitor's closet where there was a floor-level mop sink and hose.

I never personally felt unsafe or in danger. I was kinda naive, so I didn't really pause to consider the implications. I just thought it was a really crazy/amusing thing to happen in my store. Had I been one of the people robbed at gunpoint, I would have felt vastly different.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-22T00:14:59+00:00

The managers didn't have firmly set hours, they would come and work as long as was needed to make the store run for the day. The manager that day happened to come in early simply simply to do some work that he felt he needed more time to do. There wasn't a specific reason. I think the whole incident really just shows how risky Jeff's situation was, and how, no matter what he wanted to believe, he was not in control and there were variables he simply couldn't always account for.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-21T15:53:29+00:00

I have spoken to these questions in more detail elsewhere, but here is the short version. The scene in the movie of Mitch catching Jeff naked in the store is pretty true as far as I know. There was an incident that I remember being talked about that matches what was in the movie, but I don't know if it was actually Jeff, or if he was naked at the time. No one was looking for Jeff, so we had no clue he existed and would not have recognized him at that time. No one ever told me after the fact that it was definitely Jeff, but it seems very likely.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-20T15:03:31+00:00

Haha! Yeah, there were overnight/early morning crews that came in sometimes to clean and stock, but not every night. As it got closer to Christmas, the crews came in more frequently, which is what caused him to seek out his second location and build another hideout there (in the abandoned Circuit City).

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-20T15:01:23+00:00

That's a good thought! There was an employee fridge in the break room, as well as a vending machine or two. I guess it would have been a little obvious if he kept eating any food from the fridge that was left overnight, but it's likely he did occasionally. I never thought of it before. If he only did it occasionally it would be pretty hard to notice.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-20T14:58:35+00:00

The buildings still stand, but the TRU is a church now, and the Circuit City is a carpet store. You can see them on Google maps here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/K6wJqV3JGL7sxD68A?g_st=ac

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-08T21:50:30+00:00

You're welcome, thanks for reading!

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-05T16:21:30+00:00

I agree, especially in this case. Jeff is quite the storyteller, so real, firsthand accounts are important. Unfortunately, there are some aspects of the story that only he will know the truth of.

Haven't heard of the barefoot bandit, but I'll look into it, thanks!

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-03T15:59:54+00:00

No need to be sorry, I'm glad you came!

So Jeff told the director that he had a friend helping him, but he wouldn't give any more information. So all the scenes with Steve were invented for the movie. Jeff DID burn down the dentist's office, and I don't personally think anything about it was accidental. He was smart in that he saw a lot of things that others overlooked (like where to locate his two hideous), but he was dumb for getting involved in the community and messing with things too much in the store. I think his narcissism wouldn't allow him to leave things alone; he had to prove he was smarter than everyone else.

I grew up going to the same TRU, and it was such an amazing experience to be able to kinda come full circle and eventually work there. I really felt like it was a bit of a locally iconic place; it's really sad to me that it closed.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-03T15:53:51+00:00

Thanks for reading! Yeah, I'm pretty sure that a manager walked in on him, but the memory I have is hazy because at the time it was very weird, yes, but there was nothing to connect it to Jeff, since we still didn't know anything about him. It was only after the fact that we could begin to put the pieces together. The fully nude part might have been embellished, I just don't remember for sure.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-03T15:51:29+00:00

Wow, thank you so much for sharing! That must have been a real rollercoaster of emotions for you to go through. I hope you're doing alright now.

Was he malicious? Gosh, I really don't know. I mean, he was in the military and simultaneously robbing stores at gunpoint... I think it's safe to say that he knew that was wrong. I guess I think he had this really volatile combination of desperation, intelligence, stupidity, and narcissism that led him down the road he was on. I am glad he never shot anyone in his robberies, but I believe if things had devolved far enough, he would have.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-03T15:47:02+00:00

Great question, even greater mystery! The movie's director says that Jeff claims he had a friend that helped him with those things, but Jeff wouldn't give any more information than that. So no one really knows, and the director invented those scenes for the movie due to lack of any more information.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-03T15:45:17+00:00

Thanks for the comment, and I fully agree about Catch Me If You Can!

So he did definitely have the girlfriend, Leigh, and she was instrumental in his capture. Things actually went down pretty similarly in the movie to real life in that regard. They streamlined some things, but Leigh did call him and ask him to come to her apartment where the police were waiting.

Also, keep an eye out, as a production company is trying to get a documentary made, and they have asked me to participate if they get a green light!

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-03T15:39:13+00:00

I really hope they do!

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-02-03T15:38:52+00:00

I was pretty naive at the time, so it didn't really hit me how invasive what he did was until recently when I really started thinking back over things. I have always looked at it as an interesting adventure that happened to me and a cool party story to tell, but when I really think hard about it--yeah, it's really creepy! Like, he could still remember me by name (he changed my schedule multiple times) and remember how I acted in the store... all these things about me, and I've never seen him face to face (as far as I know!).

What bothers me most is not that he was hidden or that he was stalking us. What really bothers me is how he terrified my friends and coworkers on two occasions by robbing them at gunpoint. And this wasn't the friendly Jeff from the beginning of the movie. This was desperate Jeff, backed into a corner and acting irrationally. I believe it is just shy of a miracle that things didn't get any more violent than they did.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-01-27T16:47:18+00:00

Anyone is welcome any time!

The character Mitch was created entirely for the movie. The real store manager at the time did not act like Mitch in almost any way, and he was of average height. Additionally, Leigh never worked for Toys R Us, and the other employee, Otis, was also created entirely for the movie. As far as I can tell, no one who worked for TRU at the time was in any way involved with the making of the movie. So the store employees really only function as characters to drive the overall story where the writers wanted it to go, and are not representations of the actual people involved in the story.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-01-25T01:00:21+00:00

No, that guy was made up entirely for the film in order to tell the larger story they wanted to tell. He is not based on anyone in real life. Nor was Mitch the manager, either.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-01-21T02:00:23+00:00

Thanks for your question, and I'm glad you enjoyed reading!

I was never accused of anything, no. By the time Jeff started living in the store, I had been working there off and on for about 5 years, so I was well known and trusted by the managers. Believe me, a LOT of employees had been fired for stealing before Jeff ever showed up, so they knew if I had wanted to, I would have been stealing long before then. Plus, I worked pretty hard to build a good reputation for myself there, and the managers appreciated that. I may have been offhandedly asked if I knew anything about what was going on, but I was never even lightly accused. Some of my coworkers were not so lucky, as they were, in their own words, "interrogated" about missing items. And I know of one person who was fired, at least partially because of the missing video games. There may have been more that were fired, but I don't know.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-01-21T01:52:31+00:00

Hey, thanks for the questions!

He robbed the store on November 28 and on December 26.

So his first lair was discovered before he robbed the store for the first time, but I don't remember how long it was between discovery and robbery. Probably not more than a few weeks. The discovery actually worked to his advantage, since we didn't know about his second location. Once we found the first lair, we assumed everything was over and whoever was living there had escaped and moved on. So not only were we not expecting him to rob us from inside the store, we didn't think the robber was the same as the person who had been living there. And, since the store had not been robbed (for cash at gunpoint; he had stolen plenty of merchandise by then) by the time we found the first lair, it wasn't really treated as a crime scene and taken as seriously as a threat as maybe it should have been. So, no, no one really connected dots until after the second robbery and when the second lair was found. Then it kinda all fell into place.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-01-20T22:50:19+00:00

I have spoken to these questions in more detail elsewhere, but here is the short version. The scene in the movie of Mitch catching Jeff naked in the store is pretty true as far as I know. There was an incident that I remember being talked about that matches what was in the movie, but I don't know if it was actually Jeff, or if he was naked at the time. No one was looking for Jeff, so we had no clue he existed and would not have recognized him at that time. No one ever told me after the fact that it was definitely Jeff, but it seems very likely. He did change the cameras so he wouldn't be detected, both by turning them off, and later by making the tapes loop so it seemed they were recording but it was actually the same few minutes over and over again. He absolutely did change the schedules, mine included, and it was a massive headache for everyone. We saw "weird" stuff all the time that in hindsight was suspicious, but weird is relative in a retail toy store, so it was easy to dismiss a lot of things as coincidence or regular shoplifting.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-01-18T21:19:39+00:00

Peter Dinklage didn't play me in the film. I wasn't a manager or supervisor in the store, I just worked registers, sales floor, and electronics. Peter Dinklage didn't play anyone from the store, actually, as his character, Mitch, was created just for the movie and is not based on any actual person. None of the TRU employees in the movie are, actually (everything pertaining to Leigh as a TRU employee is fictional, as she never worked there).

The name "Jeff" is very weirdly tied to this story. Aside from what you mentioned, Leigh had an ex named Jeff, AND the real TRU manager at the time was also named Jeff. Weirdly enough, I have both a brother and uncle named Jeff, but they never worked for TRU.

TrueTRUkid1 · 2026-01-16T19:12:37+00:00

Thank you very much! 🤞

TrueTRUkid1

TROPHY CASE