Garner Mom Helps Subdue, Handcuff Shoplifting Suspect

Stacie Hagwood got more than she bargained for when she made a quick stop at a Garner supermarket.

She noticed an off-duty officer was struggling to arrest a suspected shoplifter.

"Officer Beamish got word the suspect had put some steaks down his pants," said Lt. Paul Shambaugh of the Garner Police Department.

"I was at the counter making an exchange," said Stacie Hagwood. "At the time the guy looked pretty intoxicated." "By the time they got [to this aisle], they just disappeared into the health food section and all I could see was feet sticking out."

Without thinking, the mother of two jumped in to help.

"They were on the ground and I just jumped on the back of his legs, bent them back over him, held him down and got him cuffed," Hagwood said.

For almost 14 years, this stay-at-home mother was a Raleigh police officer.

"Somebody pushes a certain button and you react out of habit. That button got pushed and the habit is that you respond and you help," Hagwood said.

When asked if this experience would make her rejoin the police force, she said no -- family comes first.

Ronald Eugene Williams, 34, of Moundville, Ala., is charged with communicating threats, resisting arrest and misdemeanor larceny. He remains in the Wake County Jail.