Background: Law enforcement vehicles are parked outside the Coffee County Pre-Trial Detention Center in Nicholls, Georgia (Coffee County Sheriff”s Office). Inset: Michael Lee Ansel (Coffee County Sheriff’s Office).
A man was so upset by the price of cigarettes at a Georgia convenience store that he threatened to shoot employees and “send them back in a box,” authorities say.
Michael Lee Ansel, 39, has been charged with committing terroristic threats and acts as well as obstructing law enforcement officers. He was placed in the Coffee County Pre-Trial Detention Center without bond, the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
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On Sunday evening at about 7 p.m., deputies arrived at a convenience store on Highway 32 in Coffee County due to reports of an armed robbery. According to the sheriff’s office, witnesses told the responding deputies that a man had entered the store and started arguing with employees “about the price of cigarettes.”
The man is said to have left the store two separate times before returning with a weapon. On this last arrival, he reportedly threatened the workers by saying, “I’m gonna shoot both of y’all.”
The Coffee County Sheriff’s Office deputies reviewed surveillance footage and identified Ansel as their suspect. He is from the area and has a criminal history, the law enforcement agency noted. At approximately 9:30 p.m., detectives launched a search for Ansel, and before the clock struck midnight, they found him.
“Upon contact, Ansel openly admitted to entering the store making threats to ‘Send them back in a box,'” the sheriff’s office stated. Deputies said his reasoning for making threats was frustration over the price of cigarettes being advertised at $6 but sold for $12.
When the law enforcement officers told him he was under arrest, the situation is said to have become more complicated.
“Ansel refused to comply and he immediately jumped in a nearby pond,” deputies recounted. And when detectives attempted to retrieve him from the water and detain him, “he then began having a seizure.”
“Deputies quickly rendered aid and safely removed him from the water without injury to himself or others,” they added. “It was later determined that Ansel was wielding a hatchet when he entered the store.”
Ansel’s criminal history includes convictions for burglary, theft, and entering a vehicle with intent to commit theft or a felony – with the charges stretching back more than 20 years. He was last released from Macon State Prison on Aug. 11, 2024, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
