Police: Man tries to steal $11K in groceries at Aurora Meijer

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Updated: March 6, 2012 8:21AM

A Downers Grove man was charged with misdemeanor retail theft after he allegedly tried to steal over $11,000 of prescription drugs and other groceries at an Aurora Meijer.

Police said store security officers spotted David Morelock loading prescription drugs, strawberries, grapes, cashews, cheesecake, razors, whitening strips, Chee-tos and skin care lotion into two gift bags he stored in his cart.

He started to take the items worth $11,422 out of the store Tuesday, hesitated, then dropped them back into the cart, police said.

The Downers Grove man told arresting officers that if he’d known they were going to apprehend him, he would have run, from the store at 808 N. Route 59, according to reports.

Morelock, 25, was previously charged with stealing $301 worth of items from a Bolingbrook Meijer on Jan. 27; items worth $1,185 from the same Meijer on Jan. 28; and items worth $1,449 from another Bolingbrook Meijer on Sunday, police said.

Police said he also is a suspect in other thefts from Meijer stores across the region, including Des Plaines.

He has been charged with theft or retail theft in Chicago on Nov. 25 and Dec. 11, 2011, and on Jan. 6, 21 and 25, police said.

DuPage County prosecutors would not authorize felony charges against Morelock in the Tuesday incident because officers stopped him before he removed the items from the store, police said.