Crime & Safety
Warrant: Florida Man Ransacks Akers Mill Road Gift Store
Among other things, he allegedly jumped on a glass countertop, broke the cash register and brought down ceiling tiles.
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a Florida man who allegedly stole a $25 Atlanta Falcons shirt from the Embassy Suites Gift Store on Akers Mill Road, then ransacked the place.
Just before 10:20 a.m. Sunday, Austin Patrick Belton of New Smyrna Beach, Fla. allegedly knocked glass items in a display case onto the floor, jumped on and shattered the glass countertop, and broke the cash register, according to an arrest warrant.
Belton, Cobb police said, "forced himself through the ceiling tiles in attempts to flee the scene and in doing so broke and brought down several ceiling tiles, pulled the air conditioning duct down and the aluminum support frames from the walls."
Police ordered him several times to exit the ceiling. Once Belton came out, he allegedly put up a fight as two officers tried to take him into custody.
Belton faces one count each of theft by shoplifting, second degree criminal damage and obstruction.
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