A suspected shoplifter at the Bainbridge Safeway made a daring escape with at least seven bottles of alcoholic beverages by riding a shopping cart through the grocery store’s parking lot.
The bizarre getaway occurred just after 10 p.m. Tuesday, June 2 at the Safeway on High School Road.
According to a Bainbridge Island Police Department report on the incident, a Safeway employee was walking through the store when she noticed a man in his 50s putting alcohol into a shopping cart.
The man then covered the bottles with a sweatshirt and made his way toward the north doors of the store.
The employee, however, told police the man looked like someone who had stolen from the store in the past.
As she started after the man, he turned around and saw he was being followed.
He then ran toward the door while still pushing the cart.
The employee gave chase. But once outside the store and in the parking lot, the booze bandit jumped onto the cart and rode off toward Hildebrand Lane with the grocery store worker in hot pursuit.
As the man rolled away, the employee pulled out her cell phone and called 911.
The man was last seen heading south on Hildebrand Lane.
A Bainbridge officer later found the shopping car on a sidewalk near Tormey Lane. Inside was a six pack of Angry Orchard hard cider that was still cold to the touch.
A label for a bottle of tequila was also found stuck to the side of the six pack, but the police report indicated that bottle of hooch was nowhere to be found.
Police returned to the store and reviewed video footage of the theft, but the man’s face could not be clearly seen.
The cider was valued at $8.49. The value of the tequila could not immediately be determined.
The getaway vehicle was apparently a standard shopping cart. The police report did not indicate that it was a motorized cart or a novelty one with a plastic car for kiddies on the front end.
The store employee was asked to call 911 if the man was ever seen in the store again. She was also told not to chase the man or try to apprehend him.
