Cell phone helps Greensburg police identify alleged shoplifter
Share this post:
A cell phone dropped in the parking lot of a Greensburg grocery store Sunday during an altercation between a security guard and an alleged shoplifter helped lead city police to a suspect.
Police obtained an arrest warrant Thursday for Patrick Dominique Davis, 31, a Greensburg man accused of getting into a fight with a store employee who stopped Davis as he allegedly attempted to leave the Shop ‘n Save on East Pittsburgh Street without paying for 14 cases of soda.
According to court papers, the security guard suffered a minor injury to his hand during the altercation that occurred about 8 p.m. McNamara reported the guard stopped Davis outside the store after he wheeled a shopping cart containing $80 worth of Mt. Dew and Pepsi out of the store, bypassing the cash registers.
Davis, described as a black male approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds, was identified after he dropped his phone as he ran away without the soda. The guard retrieved the phone and turned it over to police.
Shortly afterward, patrolman Garret McNamara reported in a criminal complaint, “I received a call from a male, Michael Penn, who inquired why I had his brother, Patrick Davis’, phone.”
McNamara said Davis also was identified through store security photographs.
Davis is charged with attempted robbery, simple assault, harassment and retail theft.
Paul Peirce is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at 724-850-2860, ppeirce@tribweb.com or via Twitter @ppeirce_trib.