Two Niagara Falls residents are accused of trying to shoplift an estimated $700 of food from Tops, South Transit Road, and fleeing the scene, nearly harming a Niagara County Sheriff’s deputy in the process.
Heather Moody, 31, was stopped by employees as she tried to leave the store with the food on September 19. While Moody was detained, Michael Quarcini, 47, entered the store and shoved one of the employees against a wall, according to the sheriff’s office. The pair then left the store.
A nearby deputy responded and found Quarcini and Moody in a vehicle in the Tops parking lot. When the deputy ordered them out of the vehicle, the vehicle drove away and nearly struck the deputy, the sheriff’s office said.
An alert was put out to police agencies in the region about the vehicle and the suspects. On September 20, a New York State trooper found the vehicle parked at a motel on Niagara Falls Boulevard in the Cataract City. Quarcini and Moody were taken into custody and brought to the sheriff’s office.
Quarcini was charged with third-degree assault, resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration and second-degree reckless endangerment. He got tickets and was released.
Moody was charged with petit larceny and resisting arrest. She also got tickets but was kept in custody on warrants from Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda, the sheriff’s office said…Â Union-Sun & Journal