Posted: May. 8, 2009

Hartford - A 20-year-old shoplifter with a bottle of whiskey in his pants delayed his escape from a liquor store this week just long enough to write his name and address on a raffle ticket before running out the door, a criminal complaint says.

Authorities say Shawn M. Piering of Hartford can be seen on security camera video stuffing the bottle of Jack Daniel's into his clothing. Then he decided to try his luck at winning a ticket to a Slinger Speedway race through the store's weekly raffle drawing, B&S Liquor owner Steve Jost said Friday.

After filling out the form at the store's counter, Piering snatched two more whiskey bottles before he fled the store, the complaint says.

A store clerk working Wednesday evening watched Piering fill out the raffle ticket, Jost said.

"So she wasn't going to chase him after he ran out the door," he said. The box for tickets had been emptied the previous day, so the clerk simply opened the box after calling police. Officers recognized the man's name from other incidents and drove to his home on E. Monroe Ave.

"This is one of the stupidest crimes I've ever seen," Jost said.

Police and the store owner could watch the crime unfold: More than a dozen security cameras, inside and outside the store at 696 Grand Ave., captured the thief's every move.

When officers confronted Piering at his home Wednesday, he appeared to be intoxicated, the complaint says. Though Piering turned over the store's missing liquor bottles, he struggled with an officer attempting to arrest him.

Thursday, Piering was charged in Washington County Circuit Court with misdemeanor retail theft, resisting an officer and disorderly conduct. Judge Patrick Faragher set a May 28 hearing on the charges.

Faragher prohibited Piering from entering B&S Liquor and ordered him to maintain absolute sobriety as conditions of his release from the County Jail on a $750 signature bond.