PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A quick-thinking citizen heroically tackled a masked thief in Port St. Lucie, aiding police in a dramatic chase that unfolded from a nearby jewelry heist to a local Publix.<\/p>\n
According to the Port St. Lucie Police Department (PSLPD), the incident began at Mattress Firm, where the thief discarded an empty jewelry box. <\/p>\n
Officers said that the store manager, suspecting something was amiss, reached out to the nearby Burlington store, which confirmed that a theft had occurred and identified the thief as the same person who had left the jewelry box behind.<\/p>\n
While police were on their way to the scene, officers reported spotting the suspect sitting on a park bench nearby. <\/p>\n
See also: Stolen cell phone leads deputy K-9 to Florida man accused breaking into home, firing round<\/a><\/p>\n The thief, still wearing a balaclava, noticed the officers and took off running, per the report. Officers said that pedestrians pointed the officers in the direction of the fleeing suspect, leading them to Publix.<\/p>\n As police approached the supermarket, the 15-year-old thief attempted to escape through the front door, where officers were waiting.<\/p>\n That’s when a heroic 76-year-old citizen sprang into action, tackling the thief and helping to bring the chase to an end.<\/p>\n Port St Lucie Police Department Master Sergeant Dominick Mesiti said while they\u2019re grateful for the good samaritan’s heroic act they want to remind people of the risks when assisting law enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was a more serious crime and a if a suspect could\u2019ve been armed, may have used a weapon on that good Samaritan,” Mesiti said. “So again very thankful that this gentleman stepped up but they have to keep in mind that they\u2019re putting themselves in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n Find more ways to stay up to date with your latest local news. Sign up for our newsletter<\/a> to get the day’s top headlines delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/a> for the biggest stories and can’t miss video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A quick-thinking citizen heroically tackled a masked thief in Port St. Lucie,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4988,4986,4987,4989,4985,171,173,172,2231,4984],"class_list":{"0":"post-4484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-balaclava","9":"tag-citizen-hero","10":"tag-jewelry-heist","11":"tag-mattress-firm","12":"tag-police-pursuit","13":"tag-port-st-lucie","14":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","15":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","16":"tag-publix","17":"tag-teen-thief"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}