AUSTINTOWN Pakistani man faces charges
Police said the man was carrying two sets of identification, including several credit cards.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Township police alerted the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service after arresting a man from Pakistan, who they said assaulted a Kmart security guard and stole two DVD movies.
Police charged the man, who they said used two identities, Thursday afternoon with assault, theft and tampering with records. He was released from the Mahoning County Justice Center on a $10,500 bond.
According to police reports, a plainclothes security guard saw the man carry a steak knife and two DVDs into a fitting room at the Mahoning Avenue store and heard what sounded like packages being cut open.
When the man left the fitting room, the security guard watched the man hide the empty packages behind pantyhose in the hosiery department, reports said.
The guard approached the man as he was leaving the store, identified herself as Kmart security, showed him the empty packages that she had retrieved and asked him to accompany her to the store office, the report said.
At that point the man knocked the security guard over a railing and ran out the door and through the parking lot toward Westgate Plaza, the report said.
Apprehended
The security guard and two other Kmart employees chased the man, stopping him near Raccoon Road.
When police arrived, they discovered that the man was carrying two sets of identification, including several credit cards. The surnames and Social Security numbers were different, but the birth dates and ages were the same. Photographs matched to the Social Security numbers and obtained through LEADS also showed the same person, the report said.
The man was not carrying the stolen DVDs. Believing he had placed the stolen merchandise in a mailbox, police notified the post office and asked for a postal worker to check the box.
A supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service arrived and retrieved the DVDs from the mailbox, the report said.
An INS spokesman said the agency is working closely with local officials to investigate the suspect.
kubik@vindy.com