Yesterday we reported how Jonathan Franzen's spectacles were stolen off his face during the launch of his novel Freedom at the Serpentine Gallery in London.
Now GQ magazine says it has tracked down the main culprit – James Fletcher, a 27-year-old studying computational aerospace design. Fletcher says he and friends gatecrashed the party, helped themselves to "excessive champagne", and formed a plan to take Franzen's glasses (Fletcher admired the frames).
"I devised a short ransom note and planned my escape route," he said. Unfortunately this was through the nearby lake: "I ran into the water . . . the copy of Franzen's book I'd helped myself to was floating away. A helicopter was flying above." And that's when he was arrested and released without charge.
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