By Nathan Hardin
nhardin@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — A 31-year-old man was turned away at Walmart’s customer service desk Friday before police say he stole a TV, assaulted an officer and fled on foot.
According to a Salisbury Police report, Matthew Humphreys became irate after a Walmart employee declined to allow Humphrey’s to return $174 in baby items at the Arlington Street store.
Humphreys left the desk and proceeded to the electronics department, the report said, where he pulled a 46 inch flat screen display TV into a nearby cart and walked to the grocery department.
But he wasn’t planning on paying for it, officers said.
Instead, the report says, Humphreys tried to leave the store with the $878 display model.
An off-duty Alcohol Law Enforcement officer attempted to stop the man at the exit, the report said, but Humphreys punched the officer in the face and fled — without the cart — on foot.
Officers caught Humphreys near Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. after he crossed through the K-Mart parking lot.
But Humphreys wasn’t going down without another fight.
Police said the Texas native began kicking a patrol car window after being placed in the back of the cruiser.
The damage to the broken glass was estimated at nearly $200.
Humphreys, of 19830 Seagler Glen Lane, Waynesville, was charged with misdemeanor larceny, misdemeanor assault on a government official, misdemeanor resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer and misdemeanor injury to personal property.
He was in jail Monday under a $6,000 bond.