Police arrested an older man who allegedly went on a crime spree with a young boy, believed to be his grandson, trying to shoplift from a convenience store and then stealing two cars in Marietta.
The man was found with the boy at a Motel 6 on Delk Road Thursday night.
The bizarre events began about 9:30 a.m. when the man, accompanied by a boy believed to be 5 to 7 years old, allegedly tried to shoplift ice cream and cheese from the Racetrack gas station and convenience store on Delk Road near I-75.
“When he started walking out, the clerk, who was alert, stopped him,” Marietta police spokesman Officer David Baldwin said.
The man apologized, said he had left his wallet in his car, and left with the child.
About 40 minutes later, Racetrack customer Randy Anoziel was walking out of the store when he realized something was wrong. "I was looking for my car and couldn't find my car," Anoziel told Channel 2 Action News.
Someone had taken off in Anozie’s red Honda Civic. Witnesses said they had seen an older man, accompanied by a small child, hot-wiring Anoziel’s car.
But the pair didn’t get far – just across the street to a Hardee’s fast-food restaurant. There, they dumped the red Honda and, about 10 minutes later, took off in a white Honda Civic, also stolen, Baldwin said.
The man “drove another block and a half to the Motel 6 on Delk Road and he dumped the car there – all while he had this child with him,” Baldwin said.
Investigators can’t figure out what the man was thinking, the police spokesman said: “All of it is right there, almost right next to each other.”
In any event, officers didn’t find the second car until hours later. Once they did, they showed photos of the adult suspect to witnesses, but nobody recognized him.
“Witnesses stated the child was very comfortable around him, never felt scared or anything else, and heard him address the man as ‘Poppa' or something like that, so they knew there was some type of relationship with him,” Baldwin said. “So that’s why believe it’s a grandfather and a grandson.”
--Dispatch editor Angel K. Brooks contributed to this article.
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