CUMMING — Although two men suspected of shoplifting nearly $5,000 worth of merchandise from the Cumming Walmart remain at large, authorities say they have identified — and will eventually catch — them both.
It also appears the men may have been planning similar crimes at area Walmarts.
Doug Rainwater, a spokesman for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, said neither suspect lives in the county, nor are they thought to still be within its limits.
“We know who they are,” Rainwater said. “The warrants are out, so it’s only a matter of time.”
According to a Cumming police report, three men fled the store at 1500 Market Place Boulevard in a car loaded with electronics, clothes and other items, some retailed at hundreds of dollars each, about midnight Dec. 3.
Sheriff’s deputies were alerted and pursued the vehicle. The male driver was apprehended but the other two suspects ran away after the vehicle stopped.
Their flight triggered an extensive manhunt that involved several law enforcement agencies, tracking dogs and a helicopter in the area around Windermere Parkway and Old Atlanta and Trammel roads.
The suspects were not believed to be armed and authorities have said there was nothing violent about the incident.
Bryan Zimbardi, spokesman for Cumming police, described the suspects as black men about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds. The report listed one man as in his 40s and the other in his 20s.
The police report went on to note that a GPS was found among the stolen merchandise left behind, facing up on the driver’s side seat of the vehicle.
The five addresses listed on it were to other Walmart stores, some more than 150 miles away, the report said.
According to the sheriff’s office, there appears to be no connection with the Walmart crime and the Dec. 2 armed robbery of La Bodega Supermarket on Tidwell Road in southwest Forsyth. That suspect is also still at large.
As described by the witness and video security footage at the time, a black man wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans robbed the market at gunpoint about 9:45 p.m.
A sheriff’s report listed him as being 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds.
Although this robbery occurred at the same time and day of the week as two previous armed robberies of nearby gas stations, the sheriff’s office did not think them to be perpetrated by the same person “because of the person’s size” and choice of clothing.