Man armed with knife attempts to steal $1,500 in clothes from Sears

A man wielding a knife attempted to steal about $1,500 in clothes Friday from Sears before dropping the items and escaping, according to police.Ann Arbor police Lt. Renee Bush said the man walked into the store, 900 Briarwood Circle, and began collecting racks of clothing at about 7:30 p.m. Friday. Loss prevention officers from the store were observing the man grabbing shirts and shorts by the handful and placing them on a rack near the store's exit, Bush said.
The man then grabbed the clothing, some of which was still on hangars, and left the building without attempting to pay, Bush said.One of the loss prevention officers approached the man as he was walking out of the store and ordered him to drop the clothing, Bush said. The man dropped the clothes in the parking lot and continued to walk away, she said.The loss prevention officer ran after the man as he started to sprint, and he ordered him to stop, Bush said. The man turned around and pulled a knife from his pocket, causing the loss prevention officer to give up the chase, Bush said.
The man ran to a nearby gas station, where he got into a car and escaped, Bush said.The man is described as white, with straight brown hair, a goatee and mustache, fair complexion, thin, between 5-feet-8 inches and six feet tall and weighing about 140 pounds.Cheaper Clothes And Shorter Stories: On Soaps, Strange 'Days' Indeed.The car was described as a late-1990s green Mercury Sable, Bush said.Marian Wright Edelmen, in her piece "Walking While Black," points out the major "crime" that Martin committed—happening to fit a stereotype of someone "up to no good," determined not just by clothing, but very much by race. She explains the burden that black parents have on teaching their children—specifically, their sons—how to act so that they don't seem dangerous to others. She also points out that sadly, the Trayvon Martin case is not unique, and that black males age 15 to 19 were eight times as likely as white males to be victims of homicide in 2008 and 2009."We won't get it," Edelman says, "Until we have a culture that sees every child as a child of God and sacred, instead of seeing some as expendable statistics, and others as threats and ‘no good' because of the color of their skin or because they chose to walk home wearing a hood in the rain.""We are very proud to be recognized by ArcWear," said Jennifer McCoy, Vice President of Marketing and Product Development. "As an industry leader, we have the responsibility of not only ensuring that our flame resistant clothing is manufactured to the highest level of safety but to educating our distributors and consumers on the dangers of wearing and selling polyester treated garments. We are committed to this effort," said McCoy.