Police nab cigarette bandit

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A Johnson County man might have thought a proposed smoking ban in Greencastle meant an end to cigarette sales, too, when he entered a tobacco store Tuesday afternoon and made off with two cartons of Camel Lights without paying.

Police officers scrambled to the scene of Rairdon's Tobacco Shop in the Putnam Plaza shopping center, after the store's clerk called 911 to report he had just been robbed.

Turns out the alleged thief, 22-year-old Izaiha Limp, Whiteland, wasn't even armed when he entered the store and ran out with the cigarettes at around noon Tuesday.

Thinking they were looking for a robbery suspect, police initiated an all out search for Limp and found him driving a car on Shadowlawn Avenue a short time after the theft was reported.

Det. Randy Seipel said Limp apparently had time to stop by a residence in the Castlebury Apartments complex to deposit the cigarettes before heading out again and getting stopped in his car by police.

Seipel said Limp told police he didn't have the money to buy cigarettes and so he decided to steal them.

Limp was arrested and booked into the Putnam County jail on theft charges.

Apparently Tuesday's alleged theft by Limp was not his first brush with the law.

According to jail records, he was previously convicted of felony theft in Johnson County, having been sentenced in May 2006 to 630 days with the Department of Correction.

He served his time at the Putnam County Jail and after good time credit was released a little more than a month ago.

Assisting in Limp's arrest were GPD Officer Chris Helmer and Capt. Mike Hanlon.

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