Alleged vodka theft ends in arrests

Employees at a Spokane grocery store pepper sprayed the front doors to try to stop two suspected booze thieves from attacking them, according to police.

Kerry Alan Zaugg, 24, appeared prepared to assault an employee Friday at Grocery Boys, 3430 N. Crestline St., with a stolen $60 bottle of vodka until another employee emerged from the store with a baseball bat, police said, adding that Zaugg had been chased in the parking lot after running from the store with the liquor.

Norman L. Caoile, 25, was standing nearby and told employees to let Zaugg go after he gave back the bottle, police said. When an employee instead called 911, Caoile tried to knock the phone from his hand, then chased the employees back into the store with a tire iron, according to police.

The men were arrested in the parking lot, and Caoile told officers he was trying to defend Zaugg because employees were continuing to attack him even after he’d given the bottle back, police said.

Zaugg and Caoile appeared Monday in Spokane County Superior Court on charges of first-degree robbery.