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Sneaking a Snickers lands man in jail on felony shoplifting charge

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BUCKHANNON – Eating a Snickers ice cream bar and drinking a Monster drink at Sheetz with no means to pay for the two items landed a Buckhannon man in jail on felony charges Friday.

Tylor Arbogast, 26, was arrested and charged with third-offense shoplifting, a felony, following an incident that allegedly transpired Friday, Nov. 16.

According to the complaint in the Upshur County Magistrate Clerk’s office, investigating officer Cpl. Marshall O’Connor with the Buckhannon Police Department responded to a call involving an unwanted person at Sheetz.

Upon arriving at the convenience store, a Sheetz associate told O’Connor that Arbogast had been using his driver’s license at the ATM in an attempt to withdraw cash.

Arbogast had also grabbed a Snickers ice cream bar and a Monster drink from Sheetz’s coolers and began to consume the items when he allegedly had no way to pay for them, O’Connor wrote in the report.

“While inside the store, the defendant then selected a Monster energy drink and a Snickers ice cream bar and began to consume both while standing in the back of the store,” O’Connor wrote in the complaint.

O’Connor escorted Arbogast out of store and arrested him for shoplifting.

According to the file, O’Connor knew that Arbogast “did not have a valid bank card, cash or any other means of paying for the items due to three prior calls involving businesses where the defendant advised that he was trying to use his ID to obtain money.”

O’Connor was able to verify that Arbogast had been convicted on shoplifting charges two other times in Upshur County Magistrate Court; he had entered a no contest plea on May 11, 2012 and a guilty plea on May 28, 2013.

While first and second-offense shoplifting charges qualify as misdemeanors, third-offense shoplifting is a felony. According to the file, the total value of food and beverages Arbogast consumed while in Sheetz amounted to $4.68.

Magistrate Mike Coffman set bond at $10,000 cash or surety and ordered Arbogast to have no contact with Sheetz.

The penalty for a conviction of third-offense shoplifting is the payment of a fine ranging from $500 to $5,000 and imprisonment in the penitentiary for one to 10 years, provided that at least one of those years is spent in confinement and not subject to probation.

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