Two men reportedly helped themselves to 14 cases of beer and walked out of Ingles grocery store in Eatonton without stopping at the cash register.
Later that day, they were captured and arrested following a dangerous chase in downtown Milledgeville.
The theft happened on Feb. 10, so apparently, the men were stocking up to watch the Super Bowl, authorities said.
Eatonton Police officer Alex Rickey responded to the call of a shoplifting in progress at Ingles on Monticello Road around 2:25 p.m., but he was told the two men had already left the store, according to the Eatonton Police Department report.
Fortunately, the store manager had taken a picture of the beer bandits’ vehicle, a 2004 Toyota Camry. The car’s tag revealed the driver lived in Milledgeville, so Baldwin County authorities were notified by Sgt. Harold “Buddy” Bowman to be on the lookout for the Camry.
Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputy Keante Butts saw the car, followed it, and turned on his car’s blue lights in an attempt to pull it over. However, the driver of the car refused to stop and instead sped away, according to an incident report from BCSO.
The pursuit continued with speeds reaching over 50 mph on the city streets, Butts wrote in his report.
As the vehicles approached a school zone that was busy due to school dismissal time, the deputy pulled back and stopped his pursuit.
Butts reported that he watched as the Camry crossed over the line into oncoming traffic and nearly collided with several vehicles as the driver sped away.
A few moments later, a Flock Safety security camera detected the Camry at an intersection, but deputies were unable to find it at the time.
BCSO Deputy Oscar Garcia saw the car later that evening and noted that the two men matching the description were nearby. They ran when he called out to them. Backup deputies arrived and a foot chase ensued through a “woody and swampy area” along Cobb Road, Garcia wrote in his report, and the two men were captured.
The driver of the getaway car, Dwayne Louis Anderson, of Old Stage Road, Milledgeville, and his accomplice, Tymel Lorenzo Ware, of Hampton Crossing, Norcross, were charged with attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, driving on the wrong side of the roadway, driving while license suspended, driving under the influence of alcohol, open container, reckless driving, speeding, obstruction, providing a false name to the law enforcement officer, and theft by receiving stolen property.
Anderson also has an outstanding warrant for violating probation out of Jones County. Both men also are facing theft by shoplifting charges from Eatonton Police Department.
Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said all the beer was in the back seat of the Camry, with one bottle opened. He said it was all returned to Ingles.