Placer chase ends with arrest of Sacramento man accused in Target store theft ring
After a vehicle chase on Interstate 80, Placer County sheriff’s deputies captured a Sacramento man accused of stealing over $800 worth of baby formula from a Target store in Auburn and of being a member of an organized crime theft ring.
Target store officials told investigators the retail theft ring is responsible for stealing more than $33,000 worth of merchandise from Target stores throughout Northern California, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday in a news release.
The baby formula theft was reported about 6:45 p.m. Sunday at the Target store on Bell Road in Auburn, where a store employee told dispatchers there was a theft of numerous “high value” items.
A sheriff’s sergeant arrived at the scene and spotted a suspect getting into a sport utility vehicle. The sergeant tried to stop the suspect, who drove away. The vehicle pursuit ensued along the westbound lanes of Interstate 80.
The Sheriff’s Office said the SUV ran stop signs and red lights, moving into the center emergency median, at one point during the chase. Deputies deployed spike strips near westbound I-80 at Penryn Road and disabled the SUV.
The suspect immediately opened the SUV’s door and ran away, before deputies caught up with him and took him into custody, deputies said. He was later identified as Dylan Norman Lovitt, 30, a transient man from Sacramento, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies searched the SUV and found dozens of containers containing Enfamil baby formula worth a total of nearly $850, sheriff’s officials said. Target officials told sheriff’s investigators Lovitt was part of “an organized retail theft crime ring” stealing merchandise from Northern California Target stores.
Lovitt was arrested on suspicion of organized retail theft, failing to yield to a peace officer and resisting a peace officer, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Lovitt on Tuesday remained in custody at the Placer County Jail, where he was being held in lieu of $240,000 bail.
