Home Depot, Waldorf, Md. (Google image)
Sheriff’s deputies investigating the theft of a forklift from a Lowe’s store found it in another store’s parking lot — with a woman dead underneath it.
They say the forklift’s thief chased and ran over her as she tried to flee on foot.
The incident began with the report at 12:40 a.m. Sunday of a theft in progress at the Lowe’s Home Improvement in Waldorf, Maryland, 15 miles south of the Washington, D.C., metro area.
Someone had broken into the store and driven away in a forklift, breaking through the rear gates, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office said.
Officers found the forklift half a mile away in the parking lot of a Home Depot. “They subsequently discovered the victim underneath of the forklift; she was pronounced deceased on the scene,” the sheriff’s report said.
Detectives pieced together what they thought had happened: The woman — Gloristine Pinkney, 73, of Waldorf — was sleeping in her car in the Home Depot lot when it was rammed by the forklift. She got out and tried to flee, but the driver pursued her and ran her over. He then took her car and left.
On Sunday evening, they arrested a 20-year-old Waldorf man at his home. Pinkney’s car was found nearby.
The man was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, assault and theft, and as of Monday was being held at the Charles County Detention Center without bond.
Originally published at Bay Area News Group