Man strips down to underwear to avoid shoplifting charge

Police say a man attempting to steal a pair of jeans from Dillard’s had second thoughts and stripped down to his underwear on the sales floor when security closed in.

Nineteen-year-old Issiah Qua`shon Bailey was charged with shoplifting, although he technically never left the department store with the item.

A surveillance camera operator reported suspicious activity around the denim fitting room, where an officer said he saw Bailey exit the fitting room and then go back in. The officer waited for Bailey to exit again and when he did a store associate entered the fitting room behind him to check it, according to a police report.

“As the associate walked into the fitting room the suspect, who had made his way to the sales floor, took off his pants in an attempt to take the stolen ones off,” police noted in the report. Bailey was standing in his underwear when security approached him.

The jeans were recovered from the floor and the tags to the pants were found in the fitting room, the report stated.

The jeans were valued in the report at $229.

This story was originally published March 12, 2017 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Man strips down to underwear to avoid shoplifting charge."