Two men, apparently in need of chocolate, are accused of stealing Milky Ways, M&Ms, Twix and Snickers bars, Reese’s snacks and one king-size 3 Musketeers bar along with soda, a hair brush and a haircutting kit, plus spray paint, from the Dollar General store in Jasonville.

Rai William Stranger, 28, of Linton, and Timothy Stockwell, 22, of Jasonville, have both been summoned to appear in Greene Superior Court for initial hearings. Criminal cases were filed late last week against both men on preliminary charges of theft, a Class A misdemeanor.

These charges stem from an incident that occurred back on Wednesday, August 8.

Jasonville Police Chief James Gadberry was off-duty and was shopping in the Dollar store around 9:17 that night when he saw Stranger, wearing a backpack, and Stockwell leaving the store. Then someone stopped the officer and told him the two had been in the back of the store with an armload of stuff and an empty backpack, but they just walked out empty handed, with a full backpack.

Outside, Gadberry saw them walking and yelled at them to stop. The two split up and kept going and Gadberry focused on Stranger since he was the one wearing the backpack. He caught up with him and as they were walking back toward the store, Gadberry said Stranger asked if he could go home and get money to pay for the items. The officer said it was too late for that.

Once the two got back to the front of the store, Gadberry wrote that he believed Stranger suddenly realized he was wearing flip-flops because he looked at the officer and said, “You know what, f*** you” and he took off.

Gadberry yelled at him to stop. That didn’t work. Then he yelled that he knew who he was and he knew where he lived. He followed until the suspect entered a wooded area.

At that point, Gadberry went home to get his truck, and change his shoes.

JPD Officer Ryan Van Horn then arrived to assist and the two officers located the two suspects at a residence in Jasonville. They wanted the backpack and Stranger agreed to take them to it. The officers followed him on foot and seized the backpack that had been stashed in the woods.

The two suspects were not arrested at that time. But the next day, Gadberry went into the store to view video from store cameras. He reported seeing the suspects enter the store with Stockwell wearing the backpack, seeing them in the back of the store stashing the candy in the backpack, then seeing them leave the store without paying.

Gadberry reported the value of the recovered items in the backpack amounted to a total of $52.10. The items included: Four Reese’s Snack Packs, two Milky Way snack packs, one king-size bag of Peanut M&Ms, three king-size Twix bars, two king-size Snickers bars, one king-size 3 Musketeers bar, two 2-liter bottles of Coke products, one Conair Haircut Kit, one Conair Hairbrush, and two cans of blue Miracal Premium Spray Paint.