More Liquor Stealing & Violence at Area Jewel: Cops

JOLIET, IL — Just days after three Jewel supermarket workers were slashed by a liquor-stealing shoplifter in Shorewood, an employee of a Joliet Jewel suffered a cut pinky while thwarting a liquor theft, police said.

The 26-year-old security guard spotted Tristan Caldwell, 33, shoving two bottles of liquor down his pants at the West Jefferson Street Jewel about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.

After Caldwell walked out of the store, the security guard identified himself and asked him to return inside, police said, and that was when the fight was on.

Caldwell and the security guard scrapped and ended up on the ground together as the guard tried to handcuff Caldwell, police said, and when the cops arrived, the two men were still going at it.

The security guard reportedly refused medical attention for his injured pinky finger.

Officers found five bottles of stolen liquor valued at nearly $100 on Caldwell, police said. He was taken to the Will County jail.

On Thursday, three Jewel workers at the Shorewood store suffered knife wounds — with one ending up in the hospital — while subduing a liquor thief, police said. The alleged stabber, David Louis Knight, 46, and his 30-year-old lady friend, Stephany Ingram, were arrested and jailed.

Tristan Caldwell | image via Will County Sheriff's Department