Stealing? Bad.
Walking into a Wal-Mart, picking up a receptacle for Children’s Miracle Network donations and walking out? Really bad.
Breaking that receptacle open in the parking lot, then going back into the store to exchange the coins for cash? Well…
“I don’t know that he’s completely mentally stable, obviously, to make some of these types of decisions,” Lawrenceville police Detective T. Gilovanni said.
Gilovanni’s department posted on YouTube on Thursday surveillance footage from the crime that took place April 3 at the Wal-Mart at 1400 Lawrenceville Highway. The images show a black man wearing a red-and-white striped shirt and a Chicago Bulls hat lingering in the front of the store before approaching the donations container, hesitating momentarily and picking it up.
From there, Gilovanni said, the unidentified suspect walked to his car and split the container open. He put the change in his hat and walked back into the store to visit the CoinSTAR machine.
In the end, he escaped with $106.22 in cash intended for the Children’s Miracle Network, a nonprofit that raises money for children’s hospitals across the country.
“He probably more than likely saw it as a victimless crime,” Gilovanni said, “because he’s taking donations and there’s no one there to hold him accountable. Unfortunately, this is not a victimless crime.”
Anyone with information on the bandit is asked to contact Gilovanni at 770-670-5016.
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