I arrive at Meijers at 4:30 am and like before I was about the only person in there. I also quickly realized I'm at the wrong store and remember this place had nothing left before Christmas. Oh well Cokes are on sale and I need to check out a flat screen TV while here. As I'm checking into the TV's I get creeped out by a couple of young guys that are in the electronics department. I decided I don't trust them and remove myself and my $300 in cash and $500 in gift cards to the front of the store. After putting the Cokes in the trunk and seeing one of the boys walking towards me I took the cart back to the front sidewalk. He continued on to his car 2 spots away from mine. I am not their interest at all, guess they would of liked to keep it that way. As I was getting back to my car I hear someone running and turn around to see a guy running from the store and 20 yards behind was my cashier chasing him. She was giving up as she got near me. I asked her if she chasing a shop lifter. She said yes and I took off in the car.
OOPS I have no snow tires and this lot is all ice. So I slip and slide all over busting through the lot at 10 mph full throttle... After dodging the cart return rack and now pointing in the right direction I see this boy still marathon running out through the gas stations lot and towards the road. He keeps looking towards me and that's when I noticed the other guy, his buddy, was the car next to me back in the parking lot, and is now behind me at a stop light going out to the main road. I wave him around and act as if I was just out being a "red neck on ice" and now my car is screwed. So he goes around me and I follow behind him but go directly to the emergency lane just about where his buddy was about to make a dash for his car. He decides to speed off and leave marathon boy across from me. After he stared me down for a few seconds I laughed and hollard over at him and said the girl from Meijers needs to talk to him. He flipped me off and continued running as I followed along across the highway from him. He had nowhere to go but just to go. The nearest store is a White Castle and it's a mile away with a highway in between. I kept an eye on the car that was supposed to be his get away ride and seen it turn into White Castles lot. While he was in a blind spot I turned off my lights and sat out on the over pass waiting to see where this punk would come up at. When I seen the cop heading to the store I flagged him over to me and told him the guy he wanted had just ran down under the bridge to cross the highway. So the officer got on the entrance ramp and drove around and under. So I head up to White Castles and pull around the back and shut it down. By now the get away car must of thought I didn't know he was in on it and sat there. Sure enough here comes little 'huff and puff' up the hillside, mind you there is 3 inches of snow and it's 20 degrees out with a nasty wind, He's done a little more than a mile now and looks beat. He is running towards the building when he sees me and shoots across the parking lot to his buddy's car.
I took off after them and about slammed them in the rear. Nice big patch of hard packed snow and slush and away the went. I did get their plate number and which way they were heading. So I went back to Meijers and gave them the number and get away info so when the cop got done touring the country side he could get it to him.
Back to the house I returned to unload the car, leave the gift cards behind and get my phone. If I'm going to chase down criminals I want a back up call..
While shopping at the other store, they had all kinds of treasures to buy, I was being watched as if i were shoplifting. After leading this lady on a circle tour of the home goods dept. I went to the front of the store to check out. I then told the cashier they should train their store personal to be more sneaky. I found some more penquins and lots of LED goodies for next year. My job done for the day I now head home before the morning rush people get to screwing up the highways . I'll swing by the Meijer store in a day or so and see what if anything they did to their shoplifter and most likely will be sporting my Blizzaks or the F350 with a flat screen from Best Buy in the back.
UPDATE: 12/31/12
I went back to Meijers to get a follow up.. The police said they can not catch them( unclear why). Sounds as though I'm getting some blame(from the police) for sending the police in the wrong direction.Wanted to know why I never called him and let him know the boy was at White Castle's. My phone was 10 miles away. So even though the police have their plate number these punks are going to get away with this attempted robbery, and it is even a felony charge due to the amount they tried to run with. The lady who was there that night informed they dropped and left over $357 worth of stuff.
Oh well, I tried. If nothing else those punks will know that not everyone will sit back and allow crimes to go on.
