By Jim Clark

Police officers were dispatched to the Market Basket store on Somerville Ave. last Thursday evening on reports of an unwanted person.

Upon arrival, the officers spoke with the store manager, who stated he was in the process of watching a male, whom he had known as James McKenna, inside the store. McKenna was being watched because he was allegedly known to have shoplifted from the store in the past.

The store manager was also sure that McKenna was trespassed from the store, but could not locate the legal document at this time.

As police watched McKenna on store surveillance, the store manager explained how McKenna would enter the store, grab a hand basket, then go through the store selecting several items, placing them in the basket. He would then approach the front end registers and just walk through the line without paying for the items, then jump into a waiting motor vehicle outside the store.

McKenna had disappeared from view of the store surveillance, but was located by a police officer a short time later inside the store. The hand basket he was carrying was empty, but he was carrying a Market Basket brand recyclable lawn bag. Inside the lawn bag were several meat packages: two packages of sirloin steak tips, one package of rib steaks, one package of short ribs, and two packages of sirloin tips that police watched McKenna select earlier.

McKenna was placed under arrest for concealing the merchandise. He was escorted out of the store, where he was placed in the transport van and brought back to the station, where he was booked on a charge of shoplifting by concealing merchandise.

A search of the aisle where McKenna was stopped turned up a package of lawn bags that should have contained five bags, but only four were found inside.