An employee in Kmart’s loss prevention department had his hands full Sept. 28, when police believe two unrelated incidents of theft occurred within minutes of each other.

While en route to an apparent retail theft attempt at 5 p.m. Sept. 28, Greenfield police officers were alerted of another theft occurring at the same time, according to the Greenfield Police Department report.

The report said while the loss prevention officer was waiting for police, an alarm went off in the garden center area, and that a man described as a stocky Hispanic male, wearing a white t-shirt, white baseball cap, white tennis shoes and blue jeans, took $350 from a cash register in the electronics department.

Witnesses saw the man speed away from the scene in possibly a red Kia Rio, according to the report.

Surveillance video shows the man used a pocketknife to open the register drawer, police said in the report. An employee told police the man caused $200 in damage to the drawer.

Across the store ...

Meanwhile, when the garden center alarm went off, it spooked a 38-year-old Milwaukee man who appeared to be concealing shampoo, a Kmart employee told police.

According to that police report, the loss prevention employee told police he watched the man conceal shampoo in what appeared to be a black backpack as well as in the pockets of his coat. The employee recognized the man from a similar incident that he told police occurred on July 19. In that initial incident, the man fled the store with the items and was not caught, the employee told police.

When police arrived at Kmart, they located the man near the service desk, and when they searched him they found a pipe consistently used to smoke either crack cocaine or heroin, the report said.

The man was issued a municipal citation for possession of drug paraphernalia and was charged with one misdemeanor count of retail theft by the District Attorney’s office Sunday.