WinCo shoplifter with stun gun, meth, assaulted security during theft
EUGENE, Ore. June 26 2018 – The trip to the grocery store started out normal.
“I just came to get some lunch items,” Amanda Pauly said.
But as she left WinCo, something made her pause.
“I hear, ‘Wait, security’,” she said.
Pauly watched as employees approached a man suspected of shoplifting.
So she blocked part of the doorway with her motorized wheelchair.
“It took 30 seconds,” she said. “I shut off my cart so he couldn’t get around me.”
Then she pulled out her cell phone and hit record.
“Security officers asked him nicely, come back inside,” she said, “and he took a swing at him, and that’s when he got tackled to the floor.”
A WinCo employee confirmed that the man took a swing at security. Employees are trained to not physcially engage with suspects unless suspects engage first.
According to Eugene Police, the man – identified as 37-year-old Zane Lyman Fox – was trying to leave the store with items he didn’t pay for.
Police said there were two warrants out for Fox’s arrest – and that he was carrying a stun gun and meth.
Fox had abrasions on his face and shoulders, and two of the security officers also had minor injuries, police said.
Officers took Fox to the hospital to be examined.
Then they took him to the Lane County Jail on a number of charges, including robbery and being felon in possession of a restricted weapon.
Pauly thinks there is something to learn from the incident.
“I’m not a hero, but I was there and I just think quick on my feet,” she said.
She encourages others to do the same.
“If you see something going on, speak up,” Pauly said. “Don’t just be a bystander.”
KVAL
