Take the Money and Run

Thieves in Cleveland had better begin stepping lively. Last month a young man filched a $15.98 bag from Hermes Track and Racquet Shop and walked blithely away. But he was reckoning without Shopowner Gary Easter, 31, a former Cleveland policeman and marathoner who runs ten miles a day. Easter quickly locked up the store and gave chase.

Soon the thief, who by then was running, threw the bag at Easter, huffing, "I don't want it. It's not worth this." But Easter just kept coming. The thief, by now badly winded, jettisoned some more excess baggage, including a small scale for weighing letters that he had apparently shoplifted from another store. Still Easter kept gaining. Finally the exhausted thief collapsed in a parking lot. "I give up," he wheezed, whereupon Easter hauled him to the nearest police station. Easter's quarry, Mark Reese, 31, pleaded guilty to assault and theft and got 30 days in jail, during which he can think about bettering his form.

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