Chicago man who stole toothpaste and crayons was strangled to death by store manager.

Ann Marie Balboa paced up and down a Little Village alley sobbing Monday as she searched for the precise spot where her ex-husband was choked to death after he shoplifted crayons and toothpaste from a pharmacy over the weekend.

"I was told it happened here (in the alley), but I don't know where," she said.

Chicago police said Anthony Kyser, 35, had run into the alley after stealing the small items and being chased out of the CVS Pharmacy by one employee Saturday morning. He fell unconscious during a struggle with the employee and later died, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner's office found that Kyser was strangled to death and ruled it a homicide. But Chicago police determined the death was accidental, saying a store manager put a chokehold on Kyser as he tried to restrain him. The department, though, declined to elaborate further on its decision not to pursue criminal charges.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-cvs-strangle-death-20100511,0,2255854.story


If someone stole a tube of tooth paste from your home and you chased that person down and strangled this person,to death, would be charged with murder?

Or do persons defending corporate property fall into a different category? What if someone at work stole your desk top and you saw the act and chased after them and strangled them-to death? I seem to think that a human life is so much more important than a corporations tooth paste or crayons....

Excellent questions with answers so ugly...

A two-bit manager kills a man, and walks? I don't think so................

(BTW - screw CVS, not that it has anything to do with this particular incident)

Its not easy to flipping choke somebody to death, you don't just slip for a second and ooops, he's dead.

And crayons?

This is so sad on so many levels. :cry:

I hope that store manager burns in hell.

So sad on so many levels. Crayons and toothpaste- really hit me in the gut.

Tooth paste and crayons. My imagination just ran wild.

:cry:

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
Anatole France

the wealthy can ruin lives, murder dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions (think BP, Blackwater, BushCo, health insurers who deny claims, banksters, etc)...and they don't even get a slap on the wrist. The poor die for shoplifting toothpaste and crayons. It's a moral outrage, but there's no sign of things changing for the better anytime soon.

:cry:

i just read another thread about a woman at walmart being fired for questioning a man running out of the store hefting a stolen computer. apparently, a lot of corporations have a policy about employees not stopping shoplifters because of shit like this or the shoplifter killing someone. this manager should be fired immediately and charged with murder.
i have worked in retail and seen theft happen often, mostly small things (like toothepaste) and it was commom practice to not cause a scene or go after the thief. after all, it was usually cheap things that in the end are covered anyways.
and second of all, choking someone takes awhile, and a good bit of pressure. maybe the man was "struggling" because he COULDN'T BREATHE! after being deprived of so much oxygen, your body just takes over and tries to keep you alive.
like another DUer posted, if one of us had done this at our own homes, even over a car, we would be charged. my grandfather shot a man (did not kill, the guy was fine) that invaded his home and was coming after him and my grandmother. he was taken into custody and questioned like a criminal. handcuffed, put in the back of a cop car. even though the police knew the invader because of previous instances.
and sorry for my cynicism, but would the outcome be different if the shoplifter was a white guy?

the policy was to let them go (to protect the employee from harm). Insurance covers the loss of the stolen item.

Of course it would have been different.


And yes there are two sets of laws in America. One for the rich and their pet corporations and one for the rest of us. It's time to take the fight to them.


Hell - you dont even need to shoplift. You can just move shit around in a store so no one can find anything. Take a cart for moving shit and have some fun. Move all the stuffed animals over by the childrens books. Take all the toothpaste and put it in with the paint, etc. Put old pornos in with the movies. Chaos.

It's all in how you say it.

Once the person passes out, doesn't the person doing the choke-hold have to ease up a bit?