Man Stuffs Pants With 15 Quarts Of Pennzoil, DVDs: Video

LAKELAND, FL — A 38-year-old Lakeland man’s alleged attempt to shoplift items from a 7-Eleven on Duff Road was doomed from the start, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. The entire incident happened to be witnessed by a detective who was sitting in a parked, unmarked patrol car outside the store as the crime unfolded, the agency reported Monday.

The unusual string of events began the afternoon of June 1 while Detective Phil Ryan was parked outside the north Lakeland store. The sheriff’s office said Ryan spotted a man in “baggy blue jeans” pull up next to him and then enter the store. Ryan watched as the man went down the very first aisle “in direct line-of-sight” of the detective. The man then proceeded to pick up and shove “15 quart-sized bottles of Pennzoil into his pants.”

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Evidently, those baggy pants had room for more.

The man “then dropped several movies from the shelf onto the floor, bent down, stacked the movies on top of one another, picked them up, and slid them down into his pants too,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook.

It seems the 30 DVDs maxed out the pants' holding limit. After stowing them away, the man reportedly walked out of the store, right past Ryan and tried to get into his own car.

Ryan, however, wasn’t having it, the agency reported.

“I don’t think so,” Ryan told the baggy-jeans wearing man.

The entire encounter was captured on video, including the "big reveal" as Ryan made the the man unload the ill-gotten gains inside the store. That video can be viewed below:

William Jason Hall was subsequently brought into custody on petty theft charges. Since it was his third arrest on such charges, it counts as a felony, the sheriff’s office said.

As for the DVDs, the sheriff’s office said the 30 included an assortment of “Treasure Hunt” movies.

“We went to 7-Eleven's website to find out exactly what a ‘Treasure Hunt’ movie is - here's the description, listed under ‘last minute gift ideas,’” the sheriff’s office noted on Facebook. “An eclectic selection of gently watched DVDs and Blu-Ray disks that can keep one occupied for hours priced from $1.99 to $5.99.”

The sheriff’s office also offered Hall some advice:

“The next time you need some motor oil and last-minute gifts, please pay for them. That guy in the car outside might just be a plainclothes detective.”

Hall was booked into the Polk County Jail following his arrest and later released.

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Photos courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office