SEQUIM – Just outside Costco Wholesale’s door on Thursday, a retired Sequim police chief, noticed some odd behavior.
A man, having just left the warehouse, was pulling a stash of DVDs out of his coat and tossing them into a shopping cart.
“A man from the store tried to stop him,” Byron Nelson, police chief until 2002, recalled Monday.
That plainclothes store security officer said, “You’re under arrest for shoplifting.” But the man and his female companion kept on walking.
That’s when Nelson, 67, stepped in.
“I stuck my badge in front of his face and said, ‘What part of being under arrest’ don’t you understand?”
The chief, who holds a retirement badge and is authorized to carry a firearm anywhere in the United States, also discouraged the man from continuing by taking hold of his shirt collar.
Nelson then had help from Sgt. Dave Campbell, who arrived at Costco and arrested William Schell, 51, and Michelle Schell, 46, both of Port Angeles, for investigation of third-degree theft, a misdemeanor.
