Police: Man Tries to Hide in Children's Clothing Store to Escape Cops

A man tried to hide in a children's clothing store in order to escape the police after a neighbor saw him and his girlfriend acting suspiciously in a nearby.

According to the Gwinnett County Police report, neighbors off Arbor Bluff Court in Lawrenceville saw a suspicious gray Honda Accord driving up and down the street and a couple walking around houses around 1:50 p.m. on a recent Sunday. 

Once police arrived, the car was parked and another neighbor said he saw a man and woman go behind one of the homes on Arbor Bluff. 

Authorities found the woman, a 19-year-old from Grayson, ringing the doorbell of a home in a completely different neighborhood from where the car was parked. They had to walk behind the Arbor Bluff home and walk two streets in order to get to the residence, the report says.

When asked what she was doing, she told officers that she was ringing the doorbell to see if anyone was home, and her boyfriend, a 20-year-old from Lawrenceville, was in the backyard. 

Police didn't find him the backyard, though; instead, they found him more than a mile away at the Gymboree clothing store off Webb Gin House Road, thanks to the previous neighbor following him.

When the officers approached and questioned the suspect, he said that he was trying to sell his cell phone to someone in the home. When asked about the buyer's address, he could give only the number, not the street name, for the house.

The officers asked to look at the phone he was going to sell, and the suspect showed them an iPhone with a cracked face plate. He claimed he was going to sell it for $350.

He also said he didn't think it was "that big a deal" that he went into the backyard. When asked why he jumped the fence, ran to his car and left his girlfriend at the residence, the suspect didn't say anything.

Neither the man nor woman could provide the name or phone number of the buyer. Both suspects were arrested and charged with loitering and prowling.

Inside the Police Reports runs regularly every week. The information is based solely on police incident reports provided on request. It does not indicate a conviction.