Guard Assaulted By Cigarette Thief

An Albertson’s supermarket security guard said he was beaten on Saturday afternoon by a man trying to steal four cartons of cigarettes.

The guard said a man, who police describe as being white, 5-foot-10 and 210 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes, walked into the grocery store at 10 N. Pines Road around 4 p.m. Saturday.

The man headed straight to the cigarette display and took four cartons and ran out the door, the guard told sheriff’s deputies.

The guard then chased the man out of the store and told him to stop.

As the man was getting into the passenger side of a tan pickup truck, the guard grabbed the man by the waist.

The suspect then hit the guard four to six times in the face and head with his elbows and knocked him to the ground. When the guard got up, the pickup truck was headed southbound out of the parking lot.

The guard refused medical treatment.

All cigarette cartons were dropped in the parking lot. Deputies took them as evidence and for fingerprinting.

The guard told deputies another white man was driving the pickup. He recognized the men and the vehicle as being involved in other shoplifting incidents.

The truck was described as a tan, mid-1970s Toyota or Datsun pickup with rust on the sides. Police said the license plate has been removed or covered whenever the pickup has been seen.

Anyone with more information is asked to call Crime Check at 456-2233.