A homeless fellow walked into the Smart & Final store in Laguna Niguel, made his way over to the public address microphone and informed shoppers to make their way to the front exit because of a bomb threat.
Orange County sheriff’s deputies say the fellow was not doing his civic duty.
In the confusion of the store clearing out just after 10:30 p.m. last Thursday, Jan. 4, the fellow grabbed some booze and fled.
A search turned up no explosives in the building at 30252 Crown Valley Parkway.
A gander at the Smart & Final surveillance video revealed the identity of a known area transient, according to deputies, who at last word reported the thief was still at large.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.