Police: Truck theft suspect arrested at Walmart with hatchet, baton in his pants

TEXARKANA, Texas — A strange call for police at a Texas Walmart led to the arrest of a man accused of stealing a truck.

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The Texarkana Police Department said in a news release that officers were called on Oct. 7 to Walmart for a report of a man walking around the parking lot with a hatchet in the front of his pants. Officers said that the man was not directly threatening anyone with the weapon, but he was “charging up to people” and yelling things that made no sense.

Describing the behavior, officers said “his very bizarre behavior was scaring the bejeebies out of the people he was running up on.”

Police said they had received a similar call from a nearby movie theater, but when officers responded the man was gone, KSLA reported.

Officers found a man, identified as Jerry Toney, getting out of a pickup truck at Walmart who matched the description of both calls. In the news release, police said Toney removed both a hatchet and a baton from his pants, which he told officers he needed for protection.

Police determined the truck he was getting into had been stolen out of Wood County, approximately 100 miles away.

Toney was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and taken to the Bi-State Jail on a $50,000 bond.

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