Despite catching a would-be thief red handed in the store and on surveillance camera, the owner of Fun Bike Center is frustrated that police officers let the guy go without charges.
“How can someone enter a retail business, run past the cashier with over $1,800 in merchandise with alarms blaring, assault an employee, and not be charged with a crime?” Melo Gusman asked in an email to 10News.
“We’re going to know who’s in our store almost at all times,” Sales Manager Scott Carpenter told 10News Sunday afternoon. “We’ve got a ton of surveillance, my office has cameras around the vehicles themselves so we know where there’s customers at.”
Gusman says his employees noticed a man wandering about the store Friday evening. They watched as he grabbed two motorcycle helmets off a rack and sprinted towards the entrance as alarms went off across the store.
The surveillance video shows a salesman tackling the unidentified suspect before he could get outside. Other employees helped hold him down until police arrived.
The salesman who tackled the guy got a cut on his head and a fractured shoulder. He had surgery on Saturday.
When police arrived Friday, they didn’t charge the thief.
“The police acted in a very nonchalant manner acting like it was no big deal to commit grand theft and assault,” Gusman wrote in the email.
“They said there’s nothing to charge him with,” said Carpenter. “He didn’t make it out of the store, therefore he didn’t steal anything.”
Police didn’t return phone calls Sunday to clarify what happened, or if the suspected thief could still face charges.
