Locked doors foil Wharton theft attempt
By BENJAMIN SHARP news@leader-news.com

To prevent a man from stealing a case of beer last weekend, a Wharton convenience store clerk used a remote switch to lock the doors and trap the would-be thief inside.

When the man attacked the clerk with a piece of store merchandise in an attempt to escape, the clerk grabbed a piece of pipe from behind the counter and knocked the man senseless, according to police.

Responding officers found the man - identified as 17-year-old Hungerford resident Brandon Scott Gutierrez - bleeding on the floor. He was taken by ambulance early Saturday morning to Gulf Coast Medical Center, where he was treated before being booked in at the Wharton County Jail for aggravated robbery and an unrelated warrant for injury to a child.

He remained in jail early this week on $60,000 bond.

Wharton Police Officer Jacob Zahradnik was dispatched to the Quick N Easy No. 2 (located next to Hinze's) around 12:35 a.m. Saturday. Store employees told him a man had attempted to run out of the front door with a case of beer.

"They have an automatic door lock," Detective Joey Galloway said. "He did not make it out of the store."

The man used a small statue - in the shape of praying hands - to try and break through the glass door of the gas station, Galloway said.

When that was unsuccessful, he ordered the clerk to set him free.

The would-be thief then reportedly attacked the 46-year-old clerk with the statue, hitting him several times in the head. The clerk picked up a pipe and retaliated, police said.

"Citizens in Texas have a right to defend their property," Galloway said.

He added the video from the store's security cameras has been reviewed and the tapes "corroborated everything the clerk told us." It's not yet known whether Gutierrez was acting alone.