Man with criminal record charged with shoplifting in Wyomissing

Store security stopped a man who stole $4.13 worth of merchandise about 8:59 p.m. Jan. 28 from a supermarket in the 1100 block of Berkshire Boulevard in Wyomissing. Police checked the name the suspect gave them and came up with nothing. When they took him to central processing, they learned his true identity, and why he might have wanted to keep it secret: The suspect had a record. He was convicted several times in the past for retail theft and was also wanted out of state on a parole violation.

So for the theft of $4.13 in groceries, the suspect, a 36-year-old Reading man, was charged with retail theft, receiving stolen property, giving false ID to police and tampering with public records. He was jailed in lieu of $20,000 bail, or 4,843 times of the value of the stolen merchandise.