Cops arrested a San Francisco Walgreens employee for allegedly stabbing a shoplifter in the eye with a knife during a brawl over stolen merch early Wednesday morning.
Brutal security camera footage shows the employee following the alleged shoplifter into the street, where the two trade blows before the thief sinks to the ground, clutching his face.
The employee, who police identified as 45-year-old Guang Hong, appears to aim a last kick at his victim before walking back into the store.
Police confirmed that the alleged shoplifter — Larry Whitlock, 30 — had been stabbed in the eye and that Hong had been arrested and booked for assault with a deadly weapon, Fox 2 reported.
Whitlock was taken to a hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, and police have charged him with battery and petty theft, according to the outlet.
The grisly incident came amid a shoplifting crisis in San Francisco and other California cities as soft-on-crime laws have allowed thieves to run amok — and left store employees and security guards powerless to stop them.
Until recently, shoplifters could only be charged with a misdemeanor if they stole items worth less than $950.
But in December, nearly 70% of voters passed Proposition 36, a set of new laws that increased cops’ power to crack down on thieves and made shoplifting a felony offense in many cases.
Some shoplifters have been slow to get the message; in December, a hilarious police recording revealed a pair of baffled thieves lamenting the “new laws” from the back of a squad car.
Yet Wednesday’s alleged vigilante — who faces up to four years in jail if convicted — could come to regret taking the law into his own hands.
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