Police: Streamwood store clerk climbed on shoplifter's car to slow escape

A theft at 4-T Liquors in Streamwood took a dangerous turn when one of the store employees tried to stop the shoplifter's getaway car.

The store's owner, Mike Parsons, said Friday the employee wasn't hurt when she climbed on the car only to fall off when it was stopped by police after a couple of blocks. She did hurt her knee jumping over the counter to chase the man, he said.

The store, a Streamwood business for more than 30 years, tells employees not to chase suspected thieves, Parsons said.

"Don't put yourself in jeopardy," Parsons said in a phone interview Friday. "It's not worth it."

Police said they arrested Lionnel Owen Brandy, 28, of the 2200 block of Clifton Place, Hoffman Estates, who was charged with retail theft.

Police reports gave this account:

Two female employees were working at the store at 1004 E. Irving Park Road a little after 7 p.m. July 29. One clerk was busy with another customer at the front counter when Brandy asked for a $50 bottle of Remy Martin cognac.

A second employee retrieved the bottle and placed it on the counter, but before the workers could ring it up, Brandy snatched the bottle from the counter and yelled an obscenity at the two women, according to the police reports.

The clerk, upset that Brandy insulted the pair, chased after him. Brandy jumped into the passenger's-side seat of a 2000 Toyota Avalon, but before the driver could pull away, the clerk climbed onto the car. The woman fell off in a parking lot at 2071 Irving Park Road in Hanover Park, where an officer stopped the car.

Parsons said the obscenity "set off" the employee, who wasn't working Friday and couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Brandy is due back in court Aug. 21.

Daily Herald staff writer Freida Gad contributed to this report.