Fort Worth PD: Man drives van into store to rescue shoplifting girlfriend

FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth police say a man rammed a van into a Dollar Tree to rescue his girlfriend who had been caught shoplifting.

Workers at the Dollar Tree on Lancaster Avenue say around 9 a.m. Thursday they saw a man and two women trying to steal things like candy and other merchandise.

The store employees tried to stop the suspected shoplifters. They were able to detain one woman but not the other two suspects.

The employees told FOX 4 the man tried to convince them to let his girlfriend go. He kept yelling something like, ‘Let her go! If you don’t let her go, I’ll come in and get her.”

That’s when Fort Worth police said the man got into his van and rammed the front of the store to rescue his girlfriend.

“We didn’t think he was coming in with a car,” a worker said. “We just thought he was coming back in there to get her, but he fooled us. He came in there with a van.”

Police said the man and his girlfriend were able to back out of the store in the van and drive away. They are still at large.

The second woman was arrested at the scene. She was taken to the hospital because officers believed she might be under the influences of drugs or alcohol.

The store’s employees said it sounded like an explosion when the van came crashing through the front doors. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Police are still searching for the man and woman who got away.

Because the van was used to ram the building, the case escalated from shoplifting to a robbery.