SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – A Spartanburg man is in jail after he allegedly fled the scene of a shoplifting with an unwilling passenger in his car.
An officer had just cleared a call at Westgate Mall when he saw a man run out of Sears and throw an armful of clothes into a parked car on Saturday afternoon.
The suspect looked “shocked” when he saw the officer, according to a police report.
The suspect, 48-year-old Rodney Dennis Donnelly, got behind the wheel and left when the officer tried to stop him.
A woman in Donnelly’s car tried to escape as he held her in the car.
The report says the passenger tried to jump from the moving vehicle into the parking lot as the officer helplessly watched.
She managed to get away and ran towards the officer’s patrol vehicle after Donnelly stopped.
The woman told police Donnelly, a friend of hers, was giving her a ride when he said he needed to pick up something at Sears. She told police she didn’t know he had criminal plans and once she realized he had stolen items, asked to be let out of the car but was held against her will.
Donnelly admitted to stealing the $360 worth of clothing.
He reportedly told police he did not want to go back to jail.
Donnelly remains in the Spartanburg County Detention Center on Monday for charges of kidnapping, resisting arrest and shoplifting.
