Carl the Fry Thief

"Either the Fry Thief haunts your darkest thoughts and most horrifying nightmares, or you've never heard of him."

- Chill57181

Carl, only known to the public as the Fry Thief is an infamous Chill Island thief whose name alone strikes fear into the hearts of its citizens. Since his criminal debut in August 2015, the Fry Thief has established his name among Freezonians by breaking into Mario's Fryz nearly each day just to steal their french fries from the shop and getting away with it EVERY time. He is known as public enemy #1 to the Chill Island Protection Force and nearly all of the agency's resources are dedicated to putting an end to his criminal behavior.

While Carl is not as widely known outside of Chill Island, he has a powerful reputation among those who have heard of his actions. The Fry Thief is a figure to be feared, and other villains are terrified at the thought of meeting him, let alone upsetting him. This became even more evident as the Fry Thief's bounty rose from a humble 500 WB$ to a staggering 1,250,000 WB$, making him one of the most wanted criminals in all of Shops Island.

The Fry Thief is Born
It was just an ordinary day on August 21, 2015, until a sudden tragedy would shake the residents of Chill Island. A mysterious masked penguin had broken into Mario's Fryz and started stealing ALL the french fries. The Ed tried to fight him off, but it was already too late. The french fries were gone.

The following morning, Chill57181 had to publicly announce the disaster that happened the day prior. He gave many condolences to all of his citizens. How could anyone do such a thing? But on that day, watching from home with his TV, Carl sat on his couch eating all the french fries that he proudly stole. And from that day forward, he became known as the Fry Thief!

CIPF Involvement
Typically, the headquarters of the Chill Island Protection Force would feature long quiet days with nothing of note to report for weeks on end. This was all changed the day the Fry Thief came to public eye. For the first time since Radztur, the CIPF had a new target to pursue, and agents were both anxious and eager to deal with a new threat. The small batch of agents assumed that because of the island's relatively small population that the thief could be easily identified overnight.

Days turned into weeks, and the investigations led to no avail. Carl continued to steal fries right under their beaks, and the CIPF were utterly hopeless and unprepared against such a threat. Their failure to apprehend the Fry Thief was quickly brought to the attention of the public whose fear for Carl only escalated and rumors and stories began to cycle as to how this could even happen in their small community.

Ultimately, while Carl's presence has tarnished the reputation of the Chill Island Protection Force, the Freezonians still look up to the agency to solve this problem.

By early March 2016 rumors fell so out of control that the Director of the CIPF begged the Shopper Intelligence Agency's Director LMGT to assist them in their failures. Taking the theft of any sort of food very seriously on top of just being very good friends with the CIPF's Director, Director LMGT agreed. Less than 24 hours later, LMGT had arrived to Chill Island personally, along with his top agents to join in the ongoing investigation against Carl.

The SIA agents performed with absolute precision as they began to form an incredibly detailed database on everything about the Fry Thief and his habits based on security footage, witness testimonies and even attempted sampling his DNA. Unfortunately, just as they were reaching a breakthrough on the Fry Thief's true identity in record time, all the agents and the SIA Director were called on a priority assignment elsewhere by President Lavender.

The CIPF proceeded the investigation without the guiding hand of the SIA, determined to finally put an end to the Fry Thief. These plans however, were put to a halt when a malfunctioning CIPF drone would destroy some of the integral CIPF databases, causing all the data lost unrecoverable, including the Fry Thief's case files. The rogue drone was dismantled and its parts were burnt beyond recognition for what it had done against the Fry Thief investigation.

Golden Age of Fry Theft
Due to this accident, the top agents of the SIA refused to ever work with the CIPF again, even in spite of Director LMGT's attempts to convince them otherwise. They claimed “the CIPF is sloppy,” and that it would be “another waste of their time.” The agents all wholeheartedly believed they deserved better for being "the top agents of the greatest intelligence agency in all of Antarctica."

While this caused some loss of faith in the SIA from within the CIPF, they continued onward nonetheless, always ten steps behind Carl and his mischief. Beginning from that point onward came a brief period many called the “Golden Age of Fry Theft.”

By November 2017, the bounty on finding the Fry Thief had skyrocketed from its initial 500 WB$, now amassing up to a grand total of 1,250,000 WB$– more money than what the CIPF budget would reasonably allow. The leadership of the Chill Island Protection Force was desperate, and deep down they knew no one would ever actually be able to claim the award. The increasing numbers would wind up attracting bounty hunters to Chill Island with the intent of capturing the Fry Thief and turning him in for the bounty. None of them succeeded, and most usually gave up after hunting him for a few weeks.

The Fry Thief had reigned terror upon the Freezonians for over two years by the dawn of 2018. Statisticians began to conclude that the Fry Thief was indeed negatively impacting Chill Island's economy and tourism. Many Freezonians began to consider leaving Chill Island to live in the Shops Island mainland, far away from the menace of the Fry Thief.

Customers of Mario's Fryz began buying extra meals to use as an offering to the Fry Thief for him to leave their fries alone. The owner of Mario's Fryz followed this trend and began leaving entire meals out in the open for Carl to take. This development frustrated the agents working for the CIPF. This state of mind became so popular among the Freezonians that Mario's Fryz held an indefinite offer of getting a second meal for free.

The top recruit of the CIPF, Agent Kalen, had previously pushed for agency to put body cameras into use so that any agent that has any close encounters with him will have a close up image of the Fry Thief to use as reference. Due to budgeting concerns, the pitch was turned down until the heads of the agency recognized how out of control was the crisis of citizens leaving offerings to the Fry Thief. The CIPF quickly dispatched their agents with the best body cameras the SIA had to offer for this cause, on the condition that they be returned to their parent agency afterward.

Stranger Comes to Town
Weeks later in February, the highly esteemed bounty hunter, only known to Antarctica as the Stranger, made his way to Chill Island with the intent on permanently bringing the Fry Thief to justice. The citizens of Chill Island and the agents of the CIPF had already seen that optimism from many bounty hunters before him and were numb to anything new he brought to table, even with his extensive record. The one agent who deeply opposed the Stranger's methods was Agent Kalen, who believed the Fry Thief deserved a life behind bars.

Even on his time off duty, Agent Kalen frantically sought ways to catch the Fry Thief in action around Mario's Fryz using his new body cam. He wanted to believe deep down that the Stranger would most fail to make any move on the Fry Thief, though a part of him still doubted it because of his impressive track record. The two frequently clashed together in their morals, leading to one scenario where Agent Kalen was almost shot by the Stranger due to him blocking the way. The CIPF urged their agent to stop getting in the way of the Stranger, though Kalen persisted no matter what he was threatened with.

Finally one faithful night as Carl was collecting his offerings from Mario's Fryz, he was unknowingly observed in the crosshairs of the Stranger. Before the Stranger could pull the trigger, Kalen went to tackle the Fry Thief who simply dodged him. In frustration of yet another intervention by Agent Kalen, the Stranger quickly made his way into Mario's Fryz where he managed to block the thief's escape. The Fry Thief found himself surrounded for the first time, and yet those surrounding him began to argue what to do with him. Without saying a word, the Stranger loaded his gun and aimed to the Fry Thief. On instinct alone, Agent Kalen tackled down the Fry Thief as the Stranger fired. The shot had missed; the Stranger swore to never hurt an innocent penguin, no matter the cost. In the commotion, Agent Kalen grabbed on to the Fry Thief long enough to pull off his mask, exposing the face of Carl on camera.

While Kalen didn't recognize him, he was still astonished to what he just witnessed. Using this to his advantage, Carl quickly took back control and pushed Kalen onto the Stranger, causing them both to fall over. With that moment, he made his escape out of Mario's Fryz. Carl knew that now that his face had been seen, his life of thieving french fries was over. He quickly abandoned his home and disappeared without a trace. On following morning, the CIPF made a public announcement, identifying the Fry Thief as Carl Lowver.

Appearance
The Fry Thief has been described as a potential Adelie or Viking Penguin that is either colored lime green, yellow or brown. Some CIPF agents have even speculated that Carl may be using a custom unnatural color like those sold across Shops Island stores. While there are conflicting reports on how tall Carl is, the official CIPF reports estimate him to be around 1'11" to 3'5"– which certainly doesn't help the agency narrow down his true identity. The agency isn't even all that certain on whether the Fry Thief is even male or female. When heisting, Carl consistently wears all black clothing, along with a mask for his face. Some have even speculated that this could be a ninja mask.

Carl is actually a yellow adelie penguin of below average height. His mask isn't a real ninja mask either, but rather just a piece of black cloth to cover his face that he poked some holes through for his eyes.

Personality
Very little is known about the mind of the penguin behind the Fry Thief's mask. In the very few encounters with him, the Fry Thief remained mute to anyone who spoke to him. Because of this trait, Carl's voice is unrecognized in public and the CIPF has no voice clips that could be used to identify him.

In his free time as a civilian, Carl enjoys long walks on Banana Beach. Carl sometimes feels a little saddened that no one cares who he is before he puts on the mask.

Public Opinion
Chill Island's citizens see the Fry Thief as an uncontrollable menace and threat to their society and way of life. Most Freezonians even fear the very concept of his presence in public and will flinch at the mention of his title. Mayor Chill considers him the most despicable villain to set foot on the island, surpassing the likes of Radztur and Evil Pengy. In reality, the majority have never witnessed Carl in action, and because of this there is a small vocal minority of Freezonians that believe that the Fry Thief is purely fictitious. This behavior, however, is usually due to the denial of someone as evil and cruel as Carl even being physically possible.

It is currently unknown how Carl's thieving affected the business or attendance of Mario's Fryz.

Theories
There are many theories held among the small population of Chill Island's citizens regarding how Carl is able to consistently evade capture from the Chill Island Protection Force and why he only specifically targets french fries and nothing else of value.


 * Force of Nature - After Carl had been around for a few years without any hope of his capture in the foreseeable future, some Freezonians began to accept the Fry Thief as a force of nature that cannot be controlled or subdued.
 * Fries for Resale - It has been said that the Fry Thief seeks to open his own fry shop to compete against Mario's Fryz using the french fries he stole from them. It is because of this theory that Mayor Chill has banned any other fry restaurants from opening up on Chill Island.
 * Ghost - Some citizens suspect that Carl may in fact be a ghost similar to the likes of Ghast Lee, and can simply phase through walls or vanish to get away.
 * LMGT - After meeting the Director of the SIA face to face, certain agents of the CIPF came to the conclusion that only someone as gluttonous and tactically experienced as LMGT could be the true identity of the Fry Thief. Director Chill instantly shut these theories down, having known LMGT since primary school. Even so, for a brief moment he wondered if a sleepwalking LMGT could be capable of such horrors.
 * Member of the CIPF - The most popular theory held by Freezonians is that the Fry Thief in actuality is a member of the CIPF itself, and thus is able to predict the agency's every move before he goes into action. This theory gained so much traction, that members within the agency itself urged their director and Professor Prepostera to file an internal investigation on the agency's members. The two would later comfort their agents by assuring them everything was perfectly under control and every agent came clean, though many still suspect that there was no investigation at all.
 * Member of the SIA - The top agents of the SIA personally investigated in the identity of the Fry Thief, but refused to return after files were lost in an incident involving an out of control CIPF drone. Certain agents of the CIPF believe this is because the Fry Thief was one of their own agents and therefore they had to sabotage their own work to prevent this from being discovered.
 * Nightmare Returns - Since Carl's first heist was not long after Nightmare's death during the Nightmare Epic, some believe that Nightmare faked her death and is now disguised as Carl. Opponents of this theory say it can't possibly be true because Carl is too evil to be Nightmare.
 * Rogue Drone - Some agents assume that since the Fry Thief made his first appearance not long after the development of Project Marvel, that Carl may indeed be an early penguinoid drone gone rogue due to a malfunction, now only seeking to steal french fries. Despite this, no penguin-like drones were ever put to development to begin with.
 * Shopper Conspiracy - After President Lavender's abrupt interruption in the SIA's investigation, agents from within the CIPF have speculated that the Fry Thief may be linked to a larger Shopper Conspiracy that ties back to the presidential office. None of the agents have had the guts to bring this up to their Director, because Chill also happens to the Vice-President.

Folklore
Often the CIPF attempts to cover up many stories regarding Carl simply due to shame of their own incompetence in dealing with his antics. Unfortunately for them, news gets around on Chill Island's small population regardless of media publicity or not, resulting in many exaggerated stories and tales about the Fry Thief that ended up making the CIPF look far worse than the truth would clarify. In spite of this, the CIPF has made no comment on any of these stories and Mayor Chill will frequently try to derail any questioning regarding these concerns.


 * Bathrooms Under Surveillance - The CIPF allegedly surveilled every single corner of Mario's Fryz by placing a camera into every room, including the bathroom in a desperate attempt to try and capture footage of Carl in action. In actuality, the agency only set up hidden cameras around the parameter of the building.
 * Encounter with Radztur - Word got around that one time Radztur broke into Mario's Fryz in the middle of one of Carl's legendary french fry heists. Upon seeing Carl at work, Radztur was so intimidated that he immediately fled the scene. This story would turn out to be true, though Radztur denies this when asked.
 * Fry-Sense - Some believe that Carl has a sixth sense for french fries and is able to track them down instinctively and can even understand a fry's composition just by looking at its exterior. These senses are said to be so intricate that he can even tell the difference between different types of salt on fries.
 * The Giant Fry Thief - Citizens have claimed to have witnessed Carl running out of Mario's Fryz late at night, and that he was a gigantic 4 foot tall or 5 foot tall adelie penguin.
 * Trackers in the French Fries - For a brief period of time it was rumored that in cooperation with the CIPF, Mario's Fryz would begin placing tiny micro-trackers into the salt of their french fries to try and track down Carl.

Trivia

 * One of Carl's most memorable feats was when he managed to steal the entire frying machine with the fries inside.
 * He once tried to steal a smoothie machine. This was the closest he has ever faced being captured as he was almost caught trying to unplug it.
 * Carl will never be able to join any team of villains, either because he is too evil for them or because its members are outright terrified of Carl.
 * He once showed interest in joining the League of Villainous Evil-doers, but was rejected for the former reason.
 * The CIPF's entire Police Division was once stationed at Mario's Fryz in an attempt to capture Carl. Carl still managed to break in, steal the french fries, and escape undetected.
 * At one point there were talks to produce a horror movie about Carl, but most agree that it would be too scary to show the general public and the project was shelved.