ASHTABULA, Ohio — An Ohio man on parole was arrested after he was caught on camera cutting off his ankle monitor at a hardware store.
Aaron Brock was arrested by Ashtabula police on Tuesday after he allegedly cut off his monitor at an Ace Hardware store and discarded it on a shelf inside the store, WOIO-TV reported.
Brock was free on bail after being booked on a charge for felonious assault, the television station reported.
Store surveillance video shows Brock wandering around the store before being approached by an employee, according to WJW-TV. He appeared to ask the employee where he could find hedge clippers, and after being directed to the product, Brock moved out of reach of the surveillance camera and allegedly cut the monitor from his ankle, the television station reported.
He then placed the object on a shelf before leaving the store.
“My associate, a cashier, went to see if he needed any (more) help but by that time, he had already gotten the hedge clippers and cut off his ankle monitor,” Cheryl Haytcher, the store’s manager, told WOIO. “He just put it right up in there just laid it right up.”
Brock did not steal any items from the store, but he did help himself to a bag of free popcorn as he exited the store, WOIO reported.
“We laughed about it at first, we were like, what is this thing?” Haytcher told the television station. “I’m glad that we were able to alert the authorities soon after we found the ankle bracelet.”
Brock was caught after a reporter filing a news report noticed a man who matched Brock’s description at a nearby laundromat. The reporter called police and U.S. Marshals, who eventually apprehended Brock at a McDonald’s restaurant in Ashtabula, WOIO reported.
Two parole officers came to the store later Tuesday to retrieve the monitor and thanked the employees, WJW reported.
“Maybe he thought that it was an out-of-the-way spot, that he’d just come in and we have hedge clippers,” Haytcher told the television station. “The other stores in the plaza do not have them and we were ‘the helpful hardware folks’ with the hedge clippers, yes we were.”