By BRIAN SERAILE
NAS Patuxent River Public Affairs Department

PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION, MD—Two young thieves did the wrong thing at the right time.

While they loaded up on merchandise from the Pegg Road Food Mart Texaco just outside Gate 1, five Marines who work for the Pax River’s security force were piling into a truck just outside the glass storefront.

The Marines were on their way to see “Austin Powers: Goldmember” and had stopped to buy snacks.

As they were leaving, Lance Cpl. Daniel Shaddock saw something suspicious.

“I noticed two young men messing with their shirts, like maybe they had stuck something under their shirts,” Shaddock said.

When the two young men left the store, Shaddock asked them whether they had stolen anything. The youngsters said they had not and took off running.

That’s when the Marines sprang into action.
Cpl. Kelemente Leilua and Lance Cpl. Timothy Petersen took off around the west side of the store with Shaddock, Lance Cpl. Ralph Jenkins and Lance Cpl. Brian French in close pursuit.

“As we were catching up to them, we noticed them throwing the stuff,” Shaddock said.
When the Marines caught up with them, the suspects again denied they had stolen anything until they gave in and finally confessed.

The Marines recovered all the merchandise, mostly cigars, and took it back to the store. The Texaco Mart manager praised the Marines in a letter sent recently to the naval air station.

“Most people would have looked the other way and went about their business,” Mohammad Chaudhary wrote. “But not them. They did the right thing and deserve to be acknowledged and praised.”

A worker at the store said last week that the store’s management decided not to press charges against the two young men after seeing how much one of the suspects sobbed after the Marines caught them.

-USN-

These five Marines are being praised for quickly apprehending two young men who were stealing from a local business. From left to right are Ralph Jenkins, 20, of Houston, Mo., Daniel Shaddock, 20, of Sweeny, Texas, Timothy Petersen, 21, of Wichita, Kansas, Brian French, 21, of Huron, Mich., and Kelemente Leilua, 21, of Los Angeles, Calif.
Photo by James Darcy