Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald
A day in the life of Walmart before Christmas
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – The holidays often bring out the best in ourselves with charity and goodwill toward others; and it can also bring out the seedier side of things for some as well.
On Dec. 16, an officer was dispatched to Walmart after two women got into an altercation over a parking spot.
According to the report, both women’s significant others had to pull them apart after fighting twice. The first altercation occurred when a vehicle reportedly pulled in front of another vehicle that had its blinker on and was waiting to pull into a parking space. The first vehicle then swiped the space and the woman in the second vehicle that was waiting took umbrage at the action and verbally shared her displeasure.
The two women then yelled at each other some more and said some inappropriate things before the argument escalated to a physical engagement in which both women struck each other.
After being pulled apart, the second woman returned to her vehicle but the first woman followed her after more words were exchanged and the two got into a fight again.
Both women claimed self-defense and that the other had instigated the altercations. Since there were no independent witnesses who had seen the start of the fights to determine who initiated the assault and both women gave conflicting stories, the officer noted that both parties were equally responsible for the fight and left it at that.
Man steals PlayStation 4 from locked case
The next day, an officer was dispatched at about 12:35 a.m. back to Walmart regarding the theft of a PlayStation 4 video game console.
According to the officer’s report, an electronics associate and security guard informed a manager of the theft, which was caught on the store’s surveillance system.
In video surveillance, a man identified as Raymone Aragon, 18, of Safford, pried open a case and removed a PlayStation game console and placed it into a backpack. When confronted, Aragon ran out of the store and back into a silver sedan he arrived at the store in, which then sped out of the parking lot and went eastbound on 8th Street.
The officer attempted to contact Aragon but was not able as of his report. He also added that another officer informed him that he had seen Aragon riding a scooter near Main Street wearing the same clothes he had on in the surveillance footage of the shoplifting incident.
The officer then forwarded the report to the Safford City Attorney for review and possible charges.
