Roofman: The true story behind Channing Tatum’s wild crime drama

In Channing Tatum’s new movie, Roofman, the actor plays Jeffrey Manchester, an army vet and escaped convict who evades detection by living in a Toys R Us store.

This might sound like an amusing bit of Hollywood screenwriting and character conception, but, remarkably, it’s a true story.

Directed by Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines filmmaker Derek Cianfrance, Roofman dramatises Manchester’s unlikely crime spree – robbing more than 40 McDonald’s restaurants by drilling through roofs – from 1998 until 2005.

The film loosely plays with the timeline of the criminal’s life, starting with a robbery that Manchester committed in 2000 on a McDonald’s branch in Belmont, North Carolina. He carved a hole in the roof and held up staff with a pistol, while demanding one worker open the safe.

However, there was no malice in Manchester’s conduct towards the staff. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You’re the good people,” he said, according to a report from the Charlotte Observer. “I’m the bad guy. I’m sorry for doing this to you.”

Staff managed to call police about Manchester’s crime after they had broken free from a fridge he had locked them in and police apprehended Manchester after a brief foot chase. When confessing to the robberies, he said that he had done it “to pay bills and buy things for my kids”; Manchester had three children with his ex-wife, who he divorced in 1999.

Speaking after his arrest, Manchester said: “I will do everything I can do to fix the situation. I still have a lot to give the community and the Army. I thought it was going to be quick cash, and I ended up scaring people and wasting the police’s time as well, and I am sorry for that.”

Manchester was sentenced to 45 years in prison – but, in 2004, he sprang a miraculous escape by stowing away on the underside of a truck. With the net closing in, he wandered into a Toys R Us store in Charlotte and, at closing time, climbed into the upper rafters of the building via the toilet. He proceeded to create a den for himself behind a bicycle display, surviving on a diet of baby food and M&Ms.

After months of going undetected, Manchester began to venture outside again and slowly integrated himself into the local community. He attended a Presbyterian church, under the guise of “John Zorn” where he met Leigh Moore (Kirsten Dunst). The pair started dating shortly after.

On December 26 2004, Manchester, needing money, decided to rob the Toys R Us store he was hiding out in but was discovered by two employees who alerted the police. Law enforcement discovered another secret lodging, belonging to Manchester, at an adjacent Circuit City store.

Ironically, Manchester’s downfall came after watching Catch Me If You Can, Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film about Frank Abagnale, one of history’s greatest conmen. He had watched the film in the Circuit City hideaway and left his fingerprint on the DVD disc.

Moore discovered Manchester’s real identity on her 40th birthday in January 2025, and the police caught him while he was visiting his girlfriend.

“They told me the man that you’ve been seeing is not who you think he is; he is on America’s Most Wanted,” Moore told The Guardian. “They shattered my whole world. I was devastated, like someone had just died.

“Knowing what we know now about him, how crafty and skilled (he was), I think he enjoyed the chase,” Moore told the Charlotte Observer. “It wasn’t about the money. ... I think he enjoyed eluding the police and being sneaky and seeing what he could get away with.”

Manchester was sentenced in December 2005 and given a 40 year sentence. He is expected to be released in 2036.

Moore and Manchester started speaking again after Cianfrance began researching the film.

The two now talk regularly and according to Moore are both in a good place. “I’m comfortable talking about it and I stand firm when I say that he is a good person; he just made some bad decisions and there needs to be more grace and more forgiveness in the world,” she tells The Guardian.

Roofman is in US cinemas now and will be released in the UK on October 17.