Idiot of the Day - Where's the Beef?

RIVIERA BEACH — An alleged food-snatcher and scooter thief was arrested on Sunday after he was seen by a Riviera Beach supermarket's employees driving the pilfered motorized shopping cart with unpaid packages of meat off the property.

According to a Riviera Beach Police report, Winn-Dixie Supermarket manager Betty O'Connor told a police officer that she was alerted by an employee about a man driving off with a "cart full of groceries."

As O'Connor and a security guard headed out of the store, at 3701 Broadway Ave., another woman told her that the alleged thief, later identified as Louis Lorensen, ran over her 4-year-old son.

The woman said that Lorensen, 58, had yelled at her son to "move out of my way," according to the report.

When the boy didn't move fast enough, he was hit in the leg and his foot was run over, the report states. The woman said she and her son were standing in the inside of the entrance/exit doors.

Eventually, O'Connor and the guard were able to detain Lorensen, a Riviera Beach resident, at a gas station.

The responding officer counted 11 packs of meat with Winn-Dixie packaging in the cart Lorensen had taken off with, the report said.

But when Lorensen was told he was being arrested, he yelled at the officer, "I ain't no punk, and I ain't going down without a fight," according to the report.

That's when Lorensen allegedly tried hitting the arresting officer, swinging his right arm. The officer managed to handcuff Lorensen and arrest him.

At the police station, Lorensen told the police officer, "when you take these cuffs off, I'm going to punch you in the face," according to the report.

He was charged with two counts of larceny, aggravated battery on a child, possession of stolen property and resisting arrest.

He is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $56,000 bond.