DROOPY PANTS

LAKE WALES | In the annals of Polk County's dumbest criminals, there will be a special place for the Droopy Pants Bandit.
The thief ran from the E-Z Food Store in Lake Wales carrying two 24packs of beer Wednesday evening, only to be undone by his own sagging jeans.

A surveillance camera caught the suspect running from the business at 15 Acuff Road carrying the Bud Light cases. Both hands were full, leaving him with no way to pull up his pants as he makes his way to the getaway car outside.
His pants dropped, exposing his plaid boxer shorts as he stumbled to the ground. Cans of beer rolled everywhere and one sprayed onto the asphalt. He jumped into a Chevrolet Malibu — dark tinted windows, no license plate — and rode away.
“He kind of skid across the parking lot,” said Kartiv Taropawala, the store manager seen running after the man in the surveillance video. “He couldn't handle the pain, so he just got up and ran into the car.”
The store has been hit with several thefts in recent weeks. Last week, Taropawala parked a Dodge Neon he was trying to sell outside the shop overnight.
Taropawala got busy that day and mistakenly left the car's doors unlocked. Someone reached in the car early that morning and stole the stereo.
The bad economy is to blame for the thefts, he said. But he has little sympathy for criminals thwarted by their own wardrobe.
“The guy was a coward, right on camera,” he said.
If you have information about the crime, call Polk County Sheriff's Office detective Christine Smith at 863-678-4115.