A Family Dollar customer pulled a gun Saturday on an assistant manager who took back a bag of stolen items at the Old McDuffie Road location, authorities said.
Lashonda Lynch, 34, went through the Augusta store and filled up a Family Dollar bag before purchasing just one item. The assistant manager saw the suspect going for the door and blocked the exit, asking her for a receipt for the other items. Lynch did not have one.
So the assistant manager took back the bag and gave her the one item she had just purchased. But Lynch wanted the whole bag and pulled out a 380-caliber pistol, demanding it, authorities say. The manager still refused.
During an altercation, the manager dropped her phone and Lynch grabbed it on her way out of the store. Authorities tracked down the suspect from the tag number. Lynch was arrested Saturday on charges of criminal attempted armed robbery, weapon possession and theft by taking, and she was booked into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center under no bond.
Lynch is a repeat offender with a history of arrests in Richmond and Columbia counties. She was also captured in a viral video last year in a wild fight inside the Family Dollar on Deans Bridge Road.
Lynch has convictions for shoplifting, theft by deception, theft by taking, credit card fraud, simple battery, giving false info to police, and driving while license suspended. She also has a pending case for shoplifting from last December.
In an unrelated case, two men wearing ski masks robbed the Family Dollar on Broad Street last Monday morning, authorities said.
The masked men came into the store. One of them told the assistant manager, “Y’all know what this is,” before sliding an item on the counter, telling the victim to ring it up in order to open the register. The other suspect then grabbed $325 from the open cash drawer register and fled.
Keith Freeman, 33, and Tyrone Whitaker, 41, were both captured later that night and charged with robbery by sudden snatching. A booking report lists Freeman as homeless.
