WESTLAKE, Ohio – Westlake police officers at 12:20 p.m. on Sept. 10 responded to Giant Eagle after a loss prevention employee reported a suspected shoplifter had just left the Detroit Road store.

Employees had confronted the man as he started leaving the store with a cart full of groceries without paying for anything, according to a police department statement. The suspect ran away into a wooded area adjacent to the shopping center.

A plain-clothes Westlake Police Department detective located a man matching the suspect’s description in the area of Savannah Parkway. The suspect threatened the detective with a can of mace and then ran. The detective then pursued the suspect on foot, but the suspect eventually doubled back to the detective’s unmarked police SUV, according to a police depart

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