Chillicothe – A man who was caught stealing rattled off names and social security numbers to officers twice in hopes of getting away.
The incident occurred on Sunday but his complete ID wouldn’t be discovered until Monday according to Police. On October 8, 2023, officers responded to Walmart, located at 85 River Trace Lane, Chillicothe OH., in Ross County. Upon arrival loss prevention reported that they had caught a man who came into the store barehanded took several items off the shelves and then went to customer service where he returned them for gift cards. He was approached and taken to the AP office for questioning. When the officer asked the man for his name he gave his name, date of birth, and Social Security number. When the officer ran the information it came back that that individual was incarcerated and could not be him. When approached with this information, the man admitted that he had lied about his info in hopes of not going to jail, and gave his name, date of birth, and social security number. He was arrested under that name and was taken to Ross County jail.
A day later cousin of the man arrested called the police department and asked why he was charged with theft. He then let the police know that it was not him but his cousin who was in jail and was arrested at Walmart and gave his name as Zachary Barnett.
Mr. Barnett was confronted with the new information and finally admitted to his real identification, he told the officer he lied because of the several felony warrants he has in Vinton County. Barnett was charged with Theft and two counts of obstruction of official business.
