Holy Waste of Resources Batman!: Swat Team Goes After Shoplifter Who Stole $8.50 Worth Of Goods

CBS

It was about $8.00 worth of groceries, but it cost police 7 hours and a lot of resources.

SWAT teams, a mandatory evacuation and a scissor lift–Baltimore County police pulling out all the stops to arrest a shoplifter who lodged herself above the highest walls of the Giant store in Arbutus.

Crews erring on the side of caution, fearing where the shoplifter was hiding could cause the ceiling to collapse.

Police say the woman climbed on top of some items, making her way into the area above the ceiling.

Sky-Eye Chopper 13 was over the 4600 block of Wilckens Avenue as authorities were on scene.

The suspect’s unusual escape route forced to police shutdown the store.

Corporal John Wachter says supermarket security detained the woman at around 3 o’clock Tuesday afternoon for stealing a bag of chips and some hair accessories totaling $8.50.

“They took her back to the lost prevention office, but she ran off when they found some needles in her purse. She ran to the back of the store, up onto a catwalk and then disappeared into the ceiling,” said Cpl. John Wachter.

A few ceiling tiles did fall but store suffered no other damage. At the Giant, the incident and peculiar getaway is all anyone talks about.

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