Meat thief drops load from pants

An attempted shoplifting at Ingles went bad when packages of meat fell out of the thief’s pants, according to the Commerce Police Department.

The incident report said a 29-year-old white male store employee confronted a white male he spotted headed for the door “with an obvious bulge in the back of his pants.”

The employee said it was obviously packages of meat, and he ordered the suspect to remove the product, which ripped in the process and fell to the floor. The suspect fled out the front door.

But an alert shopper had noticed what was going on. She told police the suspect pulled a knife and waved it in the employee’s face before exiting.

She called 911 and was able to provide police with the tag number of the vehicle in which the suspect drove away. She noted that another white male and a white female were also in the vehicle.