Ainsley Lord

Guy Reel

MCOM 241

2 November 2021

Feature Story Exercise

This is not the first time Michael Yanelli has stolen a car- but according to him it “ain’t

going to happen anymore.”

Michael Yanelli, 22, was arrested on Saturday night and charged with larceny of a motor

vehicle worth more than $9,000, stealing $10,060 in U.S currency, and stealing three credit cards

and three checks after stealing a 1979 Cadillac belonging to Rene Gignac. Four blocks away, in a

series of garden apartments, three elderly women claimed that the money was to be used to move

Gignac’s mother-in-law into a new home or condominium. According to Yanelli’s neighbors and

others who know him, Yanelli was not the brightest, often described as “a big kid with a shaved

head” and “a little slow”, and many pointed to him remaining with the stolen car as proof. “If I

found $10,000, I wouldn’t tell anyone,” an unnamed neighbor said. “I’d get right out of the car.”

At the District Seven police precinct, Yanelli’s reputation precedes him, and one cop

claims that Yanelli is “a little addle-brained.” Other police officers came to the same conclusion

as Yanelli’s neighbor – he should have left the car as soon as he found the cash. According to the

detective on this case, Yanelli destroyed the checks, kept the cash, and bought two first-class

airline tickets to Las Vegas.

However, Yanelli tells a different story. In a new interview, Yanelli, dressed in a T-shirt,

Army fatigue pants and basketball shoes, says he took the car on a “joyride,” and claims it's a

habit he doesn’t plan on repeating. He also says he came across the money in the glove
compartment as he looked for something to blow his nose with. As he threw a white envelope

out of the way, 20s, 50s, and 100s piled out. Yanelli says he took the car for gas, then went on a

shopping spree, buying a color TV, clothes, paying back debts, buying two plane tickets to Las

Vegas, got lunch and left the car in a parking lot to return to Friday morning. Friday morning

Yanelli sent a friend to pick up and get rid of the briefcase.

While explaining his story, Yanelli quickly shifted the blame. “This guy (Gignac) is

completely stupid,” Yanelli says. “I’m down on this guy. It’s his fault.” He then jumps back in,

explaining that he wanted to get a TV for his parents, who refused, so he bought a TV for a

friend’s parents and had it delivered.Yanelli then says he ditched the car in Lynn and went home.

Yanelli believes that Gignac saw him in the car and picked him from a mug book, so

when two cops who Yanelli is familiar with arrived at his home and told him he might as well

admit it, Yanelli did.

“I got to learn my lesson,” Yanelli said. “I got to serve time so I don’t do this anymore.

And tell people to leave their cars locked up and don’t leave $10,000 in the car where anybody

can get it.”