A Couple Vanderbilt Football Players Were Shot Trying To Steal Back Their Stolen Cell Phone

Tennessean- According to a preliminary investigation, 19-year-old sophomore wide receiver Donaven Tennyson had offered his iPhone 6S for sale on the internet and met with a prospective buyer in the parking lot of a Chili’s restaurant on West End Avenue at 5 p.m. Monday.  

Tennyson told police his phone was stolen during the meeting when the thief drove off with it.

Later in the evening, about 8:40, Tennyson noticed his phone had been offered for sale on the same internet site. So he created a fake account on the site, requested to purchase the phone, and arranged to meet with the seller in the Target parking lot.

Tennyson then went to the parking lot with friends and fellow teammates O’montae (Tae) Daley and Frank Coppet, both 18, in Daley’s red Toyota Corolla.

The trio brought a pellet gun with them, as one put it, “to help get the phone back.”

The group pulled up next to the seller’s gray Buick sedan and Coppet got out with the pellet gun in his hand.

A man in the Buick then got out and shot at them with an actual handgun, while another man in the Buick fired a shotgun.

Daley was hit in leg. Coppet suffered birdshot wounds to his arms. 

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Talk about a story that is just chalked full of life lessons. I feel like those "be careful who you meet off the internet!" lectures that parents used to give in one ear and out the other of their children as they logged onto AOL are 2000-and-late considering everyone with a smart phone is trying to sleep with a stranger they swiped from it. Still, seeing that a trio of college kids got shot (non-fatally, thankfully) in a Target parking lot after trying to steal back the phone that they had stolen from them should be enough to hold a review of the fundamental principles of online safety in the dormitory. 

Tough for me to criticize the thought process of these student athletes because there is no shortage of precarious, potentially deadly situations I put myself in while I drunkenly attained my "higher" education, but let's just put this out there for anyone that might think otherwise...

The type of person setting up robberies in insanely public places like the parking lots of chain restaurants and discount department stores more than likely has very little to lose. He didn't arrange an in-person (free) "purchase" of a cell phone off a website then post that very same cell phone on that same website less than 4 hours later because he's a forgetful crook. He did so because he's an arrogant crook whose recklessness should have made it quite clear that he's not the type to be fucked with. 

Again, I'm not assigning blame here because each and every 18-19 year old has done the darndest (Also See: Dumbest) of things in spite of their own health, but it's probably safer to assume that a thief that allows himself to be that easily tracked down is bringing a little more than a knife to a pellet gun fight. Regardless, I'm glad these kids are okay, and I hope someone gives them a tutorial on eBay.