It didn't take long for employees at a Weis Kings Market in west Allentown to realize they had a lobster thief in their grocery store Thursday afternoon.
Charles A. Shumanis III, who was arrested Thursday after police say he carjacked a man in South Whitehall following a botched retail theft attempt at the supermarket, had been charged the week before with stealing more than $160 worth of lobsters from the store, according to court documents.
Hours after allegedly stealing from the market Feb. 23, Shumanis went to the Wegmans, 3900 Tilghman St., where he took $150 worth of meat, according to court documents.
Shumanis already had four prior retail theft convictions, making the fifth and sixth retail theft charges on Feb. 23 felonies, police said. He added a seventh charge Thursday, to go along with more serious charges of carjacking a man and dragging him 50 feet in the Friendly's Restaurant parking lot in South Whitehall.
Besides the aggravated assault and robbery charges associated with the carjacking, Shumanis was arraigned Thursday night on the two Feb. 23 retail theft charges and also from walking away from Lehigh County Prison work release. Police said he failed to return to the work-release program Feb. 21.
Shumanis, who doesn't have a known address, is in Lehigh County Prison under $140,000 bail.
According to court records:
Shumanis was attempting to take $350 worth of lobsters and meat Thursday afternoon from the Weis Kings, 365 S. Cedar Crest Blvd., when a store manager confronted him as he walked out without paying.
Shumanis dropped his bag of stolen goods and fled on foot, crossing Cedar Crest Boulevard into South Whitehall, where he saw a 79-year-old man getting inside a white BMW in the Friendly's parking lot. Shumanis jumped into the passenger seat and ordered the man to drive.
The BMW owner saw that Shumanis was being chased, stopped and got out of the car. Shumanis scooted into the driver's seat and started to drive away when the BMW owner reached inside and grabbed him, but was dragged about 50 feet when Shumanis continued to drive away.
Shumanis hit a Cedar Crest College security vehicle and the victim fell off the car. Shumanis then fled east with an Allentown police officer chasing him. He hit a parked car on 15th Street, near Chew Street, and tried to flee on foot, but was captured when Allentown police officers swarmed him.
Police say just because Shumanis was stealing fancy foods doesn't mean he was eating like a king.
Many people charged with stealing high-end food and health products admit they are committing the crimes to sell the products for cash, Allentown police Assistant Chief Joseph Hanna said. In many cases, that money is used to support a drug habit, he said.
"There's been an increase in the frequency of retail thefts on high-end food and health-related products, so much so that you are beginning to see stores take security measures so that consumers can't arbitrarily pick them off the shelf," he said.
MCT Information Services
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