The locked wheels of a shopping cart foils Thanksgiving burglar’s beer-run

The wheels of a shopping cart, configured to lock when the cart travels a certain distance away from the store, thwarted a burglar’s escape with a buggy full of beer Thanksgiving night.

Myrtle Beach police were called to the Food Lion at 1430 S. Kings Highway at 10 p.m. after an alarm was tripped in the closed store. The alarm was still wailing when officers arrived to find a “front sliding door ajar,” according to an incident report.

An assistant manager arrived with a key to disable the alarm and show officers recent surveillance footage, the report stated.

On the footage, police say they noticed an unknown white man wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt, a beanie cap, gloves and white tennis shoes peer through the front entrance.

“The suspect then attempted to open the sliding door, but was unable to do so,” the report states. He gained entry through another door, police say.

The cameras lost sight of the man inside the store, but picked him back up as he left with a shopping cart full of seven 24-pack cases of Budweiser beer, according to the report.

The assistant manager told police that “the store’s shopping carts will lock if they travel beyond a certain distance from the store.”

Officers found the shopping cart “containing all of the stolen property on the north side of the store” in a perimeter search, the report states. The suspect was nowhere in sight.

The incident remains under investigation.

This story was originally published November 24, 2017 at 10:58 AM with the headline "The locked wheels of a shopping cart foils Thanksgiving burglar’s beer-run."