Man Trapped Inside of Store After Serial Thieving Spree | I Survived a Crime | A&E

GIO: This man seems like a regular shopper coming to pick up some products at his local

store

. It's anything but regular. He opens his blue bag and dives into it. He fills it with chips, cakes, candy and soft drinks. And when he's done, he just walks away. This man has been

serial

ly stealing from the same

store

for most of the year. He's there so much that they give him the nickname Gatorade Man, because of his penchant for the thirst-quenching sports drink. At least once a week, he comes in, grabs some snacks, and then comes back. Until one day, he comes in, he fills his suitcases and, when he is about to leave again...

MAN 1: Yes. GIO: --the clerks close the doors. He is

trapped

. The employee recognizes the man and presses a button that closes the door. He calls 911. But this thief is not going to wait for the police to arrive. He kicks once, twice. Still no luck. He pushes and pulls the door. MAN 1: GIO: He takes a running jump and kicks some more. MAN 1: Hey, like a thief. GIO: He returns the stolen drinks and drops the bag of poached goodies on the shelf. MAN 1: Let me out. Let me out, man. Do you think I'm playing? GIO: He just takes a drink to help him in his search.

MAN 1: He's knocking on the door. MAN 2: Let me out. GIO: Escape. Finally, after five minutes of kicking and flying jumps, the plexiglass falls away and he crawls away. And he leaves again. But in a surprising twist, store owner Dennis Alloy finds an unconventional solution to take down the thief. And here with us is Dennis Alloy, the owner of that convenience store. Dennis, thank you very much for being here. Hello Gio. Thanks for inviting me. The Gatorade Man was constantly targeting your store. What kind of impact did that leave on you and your staff? DENNIS ALLOY: He drives me crazy.

It has a price. For my employees, I don't want them to confront you physically. It's just not worth any possible bad outcomes. He comes at will and gets his way at will. He would come in, many times it would be a few days in a row, then I wouldn't see him for a while, then it would be a lot. And these guys who work for me have some responsibility in the store and they feel really bad when things like this happen. There needs to be some consequences to what happens. I'm not looking to put someone in jail and ruin their life, you know, for what's considered petty theft.

But there needs to be some consequence. Dennis, how did you decide to end this? There was a neighborhood boy. We were discussing the problems I have as a businessman and I talked about

crime

and theft. And I showed him a picture of the Gatorade Man, and the neighborhood guy said, I know that guy. And he said, "I'll take care of this for you." And two days later he texts me and says, I want to meet you, and I have the guy here. So let's have a meeting. How was that meeting? I wasn't happy with him at the time.

He was a big problem. He was terrorizing my employees. He had robbed me multiple, multiple times. So I came in with a kind of anger and we started talking. And again, I don't want to put people in jail for things like this and ruin them. But we talked and he explained to me. And you know, he was sincere and he apologized. He talked about his drug problem and how he has been in rehab. I felt like he was trying to address that. And I think he understood that this had to end. And we know we just shook hands.

He worked for me for a full day, probably 10 hours. He scrubbed my dispensers and cleaned the parking lot. I watched it on camera while he was sitting in my office, just to make sure he was doing what he needed to do. And in fact, I wish I had...my employees would do as good a job as him. So after the conversation, I hadn't seen him in several weeks. One night, I got a phone call from an employee saying, "Hey, he's back." And I say, no way. But since that relapse, I haven't seen him in the store since.

But ultimately, this had to stop. And I think, overall, it worked.