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Persistent shoplifter won't leave store alone
Hinesville Police blotter
crimescenetape

Recent reports filed by Hinesville Police officers include:

Nov. 16
Shoplifting — An assistant manager at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts on E.G. Miles Parkway reported that a clerk had thought she saw a customer walk out of the store with a $132 battery without paying about two weeks earlier.
The alleged thief had also bought some hand cleaner and walked out with the battery while she was busy with someone else. By the time she could react, the suspect had left.

The alleged thief later came back and asked for a refund on the cleaner and had placed an air compressor by his feet while he dealt with the clerk. He tried to walk out with the compressor, but the clerk stopped him. Then, on Nov. 13, the suspect was spotted outside the store with a battery similar to the one he allegedly took earlier.

Inventories between then and the earlier incident had apparently not indicated any batteries were missing. When the suspect was confronted about the battery, he said he was just seeing if it would fit his car. When told to return it inside, another employee had to stop him from exiting out a back door with the battery.

The assistant manager said the staff inventories batteries twice a day. The second inventory on Nov. 14 showed that a battery was missing and it was the type the alleged thief had tried to take earlier. The clerk had obtained information on the suspect when he tried to return the hand cleaner.

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