An off-duty police sergeant was caught shoplifting from a Walmart and now, he’s in big trouble. No, it wasn’t a pack of gum or a bag of chips - we’re talking hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise. According to NJ.com, the officer was suspended from the department.
Joshua H. Gunnell, 41, was at the Walmart down in Point Pleasant when he was in the self-checkout line trying to pull the ol’ scheme to leave with a cart of groceries for the price of one scanned item, the report says. Not only was he caught on surveillance but also by a store employee who watched him take items out of his cart without scanning all of them. The employee eventually approached him and scanned the rest… or what they thought was the rest.
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Turns out Gunnell left the store with more items that were hidden underneath his reusable shopping bags - the big, clunky ones Jersey folk are forced to bring to the store now because they banned plastic bags.
Read what happened next from NJ.com:
Gunnell then tried to exit the store but was stopped by an employee. The merchandise is valued at $212.12, court records state.
A public employee since 2008, Gunnell is paid an annual salary of $146,589, according to state pension records.
He is suspended with pay, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.
“We are aware of an off-duty incident involving one of our officers,” Mayor Robert Sabosik said in a statement. “The officer has been suspended and as we cannot and do not want to make any comment that could affect this investigation, we will await the outcome of the investigation that is currently in the hands of other jurisdictions.”
Gunnell’s attorney denied the allegation that his client was trying to steal from the store.
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