Publix shoplifter uses $15 bottle of champagne to knock out customer, SC cops say
A customer found unconscious at a Publix in South Carolina was rushed to the hospital last week for a possible heart attack before police learned he had actually been struck over the head with a bottle of champagne.
The suspect fled with the weapon in tow.
Police in Clemson caught 29-year-old Brandon Odonald — and the bottle of Korbel — less than a mile away, according to an incident report provided to McClatchy News. He was arrested on charges of assault and battery as well as shoplifting after surveillance footage captured the attack.
According to the report, Odonald was being asked to leave the Publix on Tiger Blvd in Clemson on Aug. 4 when he reportedly swung a bottle of Korbel champagne worth $15.44 at the manager and left without paying.
Police subsequently arrived at the scene in response to a shoplifting report.
After speaking with a manager, police said they found Odonald with the bottle in his possession at a nearby healthcare center.
They were tipped off by numerous calls of Odonald “being in the roadway on S.C. 123,” a six-lane highway that runs through parts of Georgia and South Carolina, the report states.
Odonald was put in handcuffs and taken to the Clemson Detention Center for booking on the shoplifting charges while police returned to the Publix, according to the report.
That’s when dispatch told the responding officers of the alleged assault.
“On my return to Publix I was advised by dispatch that a victim that had been transported to Oconee Memorial Hospital for a possible heart attack had actually been observed on store video being struck in the head by Odonald with the same brand bottle of champagne,” the report states.
The store manager confirmed that report, saying Odonald had been standing behind the customer — a 58-year-old man — at the pharmacy counter “just prior to the victim being found on the floor,” according to the report.
A few of the managers at the store then viewed the surveillance footage, which police said showed Odonald hitting the man and immediately walking away.
The man was found without a pulse, the report states, and a pharmacist performed CPR until emergency services arrived. The victim’s condition was not immediately known Monday.
Odonald was “advised of the assault” but “refused to talk,” police said.
