Shoplifting arrest

By Abby Morris
Star Staff
amorris@starhq.com
A Watauga man was arrested Saturday night after causing a disturbance when Wal-Mart officials stopped him for shoplifting.
Coleman D. Barlow, 30, 389 Cripple Creek Loop, was charged with disorderly conduct by Elizabethton Police Department Sgt. Matt Bailey. The officer also served a warrant on Barlow issued by Wal-Mart employees charging him with shoplifting.
"When I arrived I observed the loss prevention personnel walking a male subject back to the front door from the parking lot," Bailey said in a police report. "The loss prevention personnel advised me that they had caught the male subject attempting to take four DVD movies, and when they confronted him he fled on foot."
Barlow was apparently "very belligerent and was cursing very loudly."
Bailey told loss prevention officers to escort Barlow to the office of the store while he parked his police cruiser. He said he would meet them in the office to take the report.
"As I was walking into the store I observed Mr. Barlow on the floor just inside the doors," Bailey said. "Loss prevention stated that he had rammed his head into the door as they were going through it and they had taken him to the floor."
After loss prevention officers and Bailey got Barlow to stand, they walked him to the back of the store toward the office. "Mr. Barlow continued to curse very loudly after I advised him to stop several times," Bailey said. "Suddenly he knocked a display over by ramming his head into it. At that point I placed Mr. Barlow under arrest for disorderly conduct."
Barlow was transported to the Carter County Jail where he was served the warrant taken out by Wal-Mart loss prevention officers charging him shoplifting.
He is scheduled to appear in General Sessions Court Friday.