Business & Tech

Champagne Thief Threatens Drug Store Manager, Escapes

Suspect openly takes six bottles of bubbly, ignores manager who tries to stop him, then implies that he might turn a weapon on him if he keeps following.

 

A drug store manager backed off from trying to get the license plate number of a thief when the man threatened him, implying perhaps that he had a gun in his car and was willing to use it.

The manager had done well even to confront the thief, considering the suspect was well over 6 feet tall, weighed more than 200 pounds and had already demonstrated an utter disregard for property and authority.

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According to police reports:

At 1:29 p.m. Saturday, police were called to the Walgreen’s store at 6600 W. State St. for a liquor theft that had just occurred.

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The manager told officers that he had walked past the liquor aisle and heard bottles clinking. He glanced in and saw a man wearing a big, puffy coat, clearly weighed down with large, heavy objects. He was just walking away from a display that the manager knew had held six bottles of Korbel Brut champagne a short time before. It was now empty.

The manager told police he openly followed the man to the front of the store and could hear clinking glass the whole time. He tried to stop the suspect at the door, once he was past the last point of purchase, but the suspect pushed past him without a word and headed for a waiting car.

When the manager followed to get the license number of the car, the suspect turned and threatened him, saying, “Don’t follow me, I’ve got something in the car for you!”

The manager said he heard a woman’s voice from the car, shouting “Go, go, go!” and the two left at high speed. Police were unable to locate the suspects.

The male suspect was described as African-American with a dark complexion, 35 to 40 years old, 6 feet 3 inches to 6 feet 5 inches tall, weighing 200 to 230 pounds, clean-shaven and with close-cut hair. He was wearing a long black coat and dark pants at the time.

He and the woman left in a black Chevy Malibu sedan, model year 2000 or older, with heavily tinted windows, with a spoiler on the trunk and no front plate. The manager never saw the female accomplice through the tinted glass and could offer no description.


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