Girlfriend Calls Police on Boyfriend While He's Shoplifting, Police Say

Perhaps the last thing a shoplifter wants to see is a police officer standing next to the getaway vehicle.

But that’s exactly what a man Greenfield police say shoplifted from Best Buy last week saw.

According to the Greenfield Police Department report, two men, 20 and 29 years old, went to Best Buy at 11:30 a.m. April 27. Police were tipped off to a possible retail theft at the store by one of the men’s 24-year-old girlfriend, who had just gotten into a physical argument with her boyfriend. She told police her boyfriend, who she said struck her repeatedly in the head, was on his way to Best Buy to steal items to later sell for heroin.

When police arrived, an officer spoke with one of the men in a vehicle that matched the description given to them by the girlfriend. That man told police he was waiting for a friend inside.

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While police continued to talk with the man in the car, the officer was notified that a retail theft had just occurred and that the man, wearing a brown winter coat, was fleeing from the store.

It just so happened he was running right to an awaiting officer.

When he was apprehended and raised his hands above his head, an iPad and numerous video games fell out from under his coat. He told police he did not steal it.

When police searched the man, they found a drug pipe, and he was arrested for retail theft and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The driver, meanwhile, maintained he only drove his friend to the store because his friend had told him he was going to speak with another man about money he was owed. Police, however, located heroin and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle and that man was arrested as well.

While the man who fled from the store was being interviewed by police back at the police station, he fell asleep one sentence into his statement.

When he woke up, he told police his girlfriend – the same one who later called police – told him she needed him to find heroin or get money to buy it earlier that day, which is why he had his friend take him to Best Buy.