Christopher Morgan hid inside a New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Walgreens bathroom until the store closed and then came out to snack on treats, cops say. (New Smyrna Beach Police)
Florida cops arrested an unwanted — and apparently hungry — guest at a Walgreens who allegedly hid in the bathroom until the store closed and came out to enjoy some tasty treats.
Officers from the New Smyrna Beach Police Department responded around 3 a.m. Tuesday to a business alarm on State Road 44. The alarm company told police there was a man at the door inside the store, which had closed at 10 p.m. Cops arrived to see the man later identified as 46-year-old Christopher Morgan swiping a pack of cigarettes from behind the counter with the alarm blaring, a press release said. They asked Morgan the time and he said it was “probably 11 o’clock,” body camera footage shows.
Morgan opens the door and officers quickly put him in handcuffs.
“I came in to use the bathroom,” Morgan says.
Video from the store showed Morgan coming inside the store around 9:40 p.m. and walk into the bathroom, cops said. He walked out of the bathroom around 2:42 a.m. and then began browsing around the store, eating items such as Tostitos spinach dip, chips, Reese’s candy, Ghirardelli chocolate bars, Dr Pepper, and Newport cigarettes, police say. Cops pull several of the opened and partially eaten items from his pockets as they were searching him, the bodycam shows.
Morgan allegedly tried to prevent officers from putting him inside the police cruiser and spit on one of the cops. He faces charges of burglary of an unoccupied structure, larceny – petit theft, resisting an officer without violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. Morgan remains in the Volusia County Jail on a $10,500 bond.
He has more than two prior convictions for petit theft, cops said. Officers arrested Morgan for trespassing on June 29 and he served five days in jail, records show.
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