WICKER PARK — A 23-year-old man who allegedly stole two pairs of sweatpants from Urban Outfitters fled down a side street and ran through a park while being chased on foot by area police late Thursday in Wicker Park.
Emily Bieniek, a worker at Urban Outfitters, 1521 N. Milwaukee Ave, knew something was wrong when the beeper went off as a man was leaving the store with a duffel bag on Thursday.
After Bieniek called the man back into the store, he tried to convince her there were no items from the store in his black Chicago Bulls duffel bag, she said.
The man left and as Bieniek followed him out a woman on the street told her area cops were nearby. Bieniek pointed to the man and said he had left the store without paying for some merchandise.
"Super fast, they sprinted after him," Bieniek said of local cops, who were on foot but called for backup.
Davison ran through Wicker Park and jumped the fence onto the sidewalk of the 1400 block of North Damen Ave., where he was captured around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, said Officer Veejay Zala, a police spokesman.
Bieniek said the two pairs of men's sweatpants, which were returned to the store, retail for around $40 per pair. The pants - one blue and one tie-dyed - were recovered in the duffel bag which had been thrown to the ground during the chase.
Lawrence Davison, 23, of the 7000 block of South Maplewood Ave., was charged with one felony theft in the shoplifting incident. He was also charged with two misdemeanors for an unrelated battery and theft and a had an existing warrant for his arrest from prior incidents, Zala said.
In addition to the sweatpants, Davison's bag allegedly contained other stolen merchandise that had the security tags from other retail stores on them, police sources said.
