The 31-year-old father of three was stopped by a security guard while trying to leave the supermarket in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, on Sunday but failed to produce the receipt for his “purchases” in the 3pm incident, the New Straits Times reported.
At a press conference held at the Iskandar Puteri district police headquarters yesterday, district police chief Superintendent Noor Hashim Mohamad said that the suspect was taken to the management office of the supermarket while waiting for the police to arrive.
“The suspect had with him various frozen food products, ice cream, sweets, shoes, school shoe polish, stockings, clothing for school including pants, all amounting to RM415.60,” the daily quoted Noor Hashim as saying of the man who had been working as a cook for a government department in the district for the past 13 years.
According to NST, Noor Hashim further revealed that the suspect had gone to the supermarket with his eldest son, aged three.
The suspect told police that he resorted to shoplifting as he did not have enough money to pay for the food and at the same time, he thought of the need to get school items for his children.
Police are investigating the case under Section 380 of the Penal Code for theft in a building.