Man steals cash drawer from Walmart, then posts photo in same shirt, US cops say

A man accused of stealing a cash register from a Walmart was caught after some “social media sleuthing” when he posted photos in the same outfit he wore during the theft, a Florida sheriff’s office said.

On Dec 10, a man was inside a Walmart in Palm Coast when he snatched the entire cash drawer from a register, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said in a Dec 11 Facebook post.

The man “brazenly” ran from the store, shoving an employee who confronted him on the way, the sheriff’s office said in a Jan 12 update.

Surveillance footage captured an image of the man holding the cash drawer and wearing a bright red shirt with “Key West” on the front, the sheriff’s office said.

Witnesses to the theft said he got into a gray Hyundai SUV, later determined to be a rental car, deputies said.

Investigators posted the surveillance photo to social media, asking the public to help identify the accused thief.

They ran the footage through facial recognition software and identified the suspect as a 43-year-old man with an extensive criminal record, the sheriff’s office said.

After identifying the man, ivestigators tracked him to North Carolina before he returned to central Florida, deputies said, but they were unable to pinpoint his exact location to make an arrest.

Then he helped them out.

On his social media profile, he posted a photo in which he’s wearing the same red T-shirt and pants that he was wearing at the time of the alleged burglary, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators tracked him to the Orlando area, and he was later taken into custody in Ocoee, deputies said.

When he was found at a plaza off Florida’s Turnpike, investigators found the shirt and chain he was wearing in the photos inside his vehicle, according to the sheriff’s office, along with methamphetamines, a ski mask and a “realistic looking” airsoft pellet gun.

He is charged with unarmed burglary of an occupied structure and grand theft from a building between US$750 (RM3,487) and US$5,000 (RM23,250), the sheriff’s office said.

Palm Coast is about 75 miles south of Jacksonville. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service