Troy Demetrius Walker

Deshario Antwain Purnell

WARSAW — Two Chicago men were arrested after stealing $4,000 worth of alcohol and cigarettes from Service Liquor, Warsaw.

Troy Demetrius Walker, 28, 11326 S. Union Ave., Chicago, Ill., and Deshario Antwain Purnell, 25, 8337 S. Oglesby Ave., Chicago, Ill., are each being charged with two counts of fraud and two counts of theft, all level 6 felonies.

On March 31, police responded to a report of theft at Service Liquor.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Purnell entered the store and attempted to purchase alcohol. He told an employee that his credit card probably wouldn’t work since he had exceeded his spending limit for the day.

The employee attempted to run the credit card two times but it was declined. Purnell told the employee to use the force option and the employee told Purnell that he needed to contact his bank. The employee stated that it appeared like Purnell had contacted his bank, but he suspected that he wasn’t talking to anyone because he didn’t hear a voice on the other end.

Purnell gave the employee a code to use and the force option worked. $3,182.95 worth of alcoholic beverages were stolen.

After loading the alcohol into his vehicle, Purnell entered the store again, using the force sale option to purchase $975.41 worth of cigarettes.

While in route to Service Liquor after receiving the report, officers located the suspect vehicle. Purnell was operating the vehicle, and Walker was a passenger. As Walker exited the vehicle, several unopened cartons of cigarettes fell out of the passenger side door.

Purnell told officers that the card he used was not declined and that he didn’t tell the clerk to use the force sale option. Walker told officers that he didn’t get out of the vehicle and didn’t know anything about what was going on.

Video from the store shows that while appearing to call his bank, Purnell’s phone was on the homepage and wasn’t actually being used.

Both men were booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on March 31, each with a $5,250 surety and cash bond.