Talk about a tight squeeze!
A Florida man was arrested last Thursday after trying to shoplift 15 quart-sized bottles of motor oil and 30 DVDs from a 7-Eleven — by stuffing the items down his pants.
It’s the sort of thing you might not believe unless you saw it yourself. Fortunately (or not, for the man in question), the heist was captured on store security cameras.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the alleged theft occurred last Thursday afternoon at a 7-Eleven in Lakeland, Fla.
Polk County Det. Phil Ryan was parked outside the store when he says he looked through the store window and saw William Jason Hall, 38, stuff bottles of motor oil down his pants.
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“Mr. Hall then dropped several movies from the shelf onto the floor, bent down, stacked the movies on top of one another, picked them up, and slid them down into his pants too,” reads a police statement on the department Facebook page.
“Then he waddles like a duck out of the store,” Sheriff Grady Judd with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office told NBC News 8. “Our detective who is sitting in the car, watching all of this, says to himself, ‘Self, I think I’ll arrest him.’”
The detective then walked Hall back into the store, where he proceeded to empty his haul: 15 bottles of Pennzoil motor oil, and 30 “Treasure Hunt” DVDs. Oh, and in case you’re wondering (how could you not be?) the man managed his baggy pants-banditry by tucking the ends of his pants into large work boots – allowing him to then stuff the aforementioned motor oil bottles and DVDs.
He was given a charge of petit theft, a misdemeanour, but because this was his third offence for small theft, the charge was upgraded to a felony.
“Mr. Hall, the next time you need some motor oil and last-minute gifts, please pay for them,” police said. “That guy in the car outside might just be a plainclothes detective.”
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