UPDATE: This guy is a liar! He stole the Pepsi after he was past the check out, and has now admitted to making the whole story up for reporters.

Have you ever accidentally forgot to pay for some heavy item that you stowed under you shopping cart? We have, too! Unlike one Cleveland man, however, we did not go to jail for it.

From WLKY:

Tom Sturgis has a long receipt showing the $157.20 worth of two grocery carts full of groceries that he bought at a Brooklyn supermarket Saturday night. After going through the self checkout, Sturgis said he forgot a $4 case of pop under the cart.

A police officer working security at the store asked to see his receipt.

“I went looking for the receipt, the pop wasn’t on it and they decided to have me arrested,” he said.

Sturgis was arrested on a petty theft charge.

Sturgis, who said he has never had so much as a parking ticket, found himself being led out of the store in handcuffs. He spent 11:30 p.m. until 3 a.m. in jail that night.

At home, his wife said she couldn’t believe what was happening.

“It’s over a case of pop,” said Wendy Sturgis. “He turned around and offered to go back in and pay for it and the cop told him it’s like robbing a bank, you just can’t get caught robbing a bank and say, ‘I’m sorry, I’ll give you your money back.'”

Robbing a bank? The Great Case Of Pop Robbery Of ’08? Yes, I’m sure the guy’s grand plan was to buy over a hundred dollars worth of groceries as a cover for his brilliant $4 pop theft.

We humbly suggest that this police officer is not very good at his job.

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