Bennie Wentworth was the owner of a junkyard in Mr. Monk Paints His Masterpiece.
History[]
Bennie was a discharged Army veteran, who served in the Vietnam War, part of Special Forces. From his time in the anti-terrorist unit, he learned how to craft make-shift traps out of scrap, capable of inflicting fatal injuries, which he would scatter around his junkyard as a safety measure against trespassers at night.
In 2008, as he was sleeping an unknown man (later revealed to be Russian mobster Arkeny Stasya) tried to kill him and steal an art set, but he tripped a booby trap and was shot in the chest with a shotgun, killing him instantly. While the police investigated he made a few purchases, selling a bike to Randy Disher (who had accidentally walked into it) because of the junkyard's "you break it, you bought it" policy, as well as the art set to Adrian Monk. Later, Petya Lovak, the boss of the man from before, tried to steal the art set, not knowing Wentworth had sold it to Monk. Lovak ended up killing Wentworth and acting as if he had been killed by his own booby trap. Wentworth's body was discovered the next day by his assistant Hector Morales. Monk was eventually able to solve Wentworth's death and get Lovak arrested. Unbeknownst to Wentworth, the art set was actually part of a counterfeiting operation (the paper used for the canvases was the same paper used to make dollar bills).