WESTMINSTER, Md. — People are still dropping off donations at the Westminster Goodwill store on Baltimore Boulevard, but plywood now covers the smashed glass doors where a disgruntled employee broke into the store over the weekend and ransacked the place in a burglary cut short by police.
Captain Scott Peter of the Westminster Police Department says a burglar alarm set officers into motion.
"Officers arrived on the scene and immediately found that a side access door had broken glass and the door had been forced open,” said Peter. “An officer went around to the front of the store and found Kevin Garner, who is 24 years old, standing in front of the store. He had a baseball bat in his hand and he was pushing a shopping cart."
Garner, who had listed a homeless shelter as his residence until getting a job with the store three months ago, had stolen a jersey and threatened a co-worker hours earlier.
"He'd left earlier in the day. He'd been acting strangely. The manager sent him home that day basically to let him cool off," said Peter.
According to charging documents, upon his arrest, garner was laughing and said---quote---"Trump better not find out".
The apparent joking turned serious when he later claimed he did it because a female friend and co-worker "could be dead right now".
"It was pretty nonsensical it sounded like,” said Peter. “We're not sure what his exact condition was, whether he was under the influence or having some kind of mental crisis, but he mentioned quite a few things on scene to officer that really just didn't make sense."
Any more than loading an estimated $7,300 worth of merchandise into a line of shopping carts to steal and causing almost $3,000 worth of damage breaking into a place that helps provide job training and other vocation services to hundreds of people each year.
