After two teens were arrested in shoplifting case, cops poked fun at them on Facebook

Two brothers went one Pop Tart too far on their Target runs.

Police said when the teens were spotted sneaking out of the store with sausages and cookies along with the toaster pastries, Target retailers called the cops.

#TheyProbablyStoleEachOthersLegosGrowingUp, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.

But the boys took more than just snacks, deputies said.

When they searched William and Deon Heinig for stolen merchandise on July 22, they also found a video game still in its packaging. Except the Target retailers said the game wasn’t from their store.

Instead, deputies discovered that it was nabbed from a Best Buy in the same shopping mall, Posner Park in Davenport, according to the Sheriff’s Office. An investigation revealed that the brothers were suspects in multiple other theft cases. They were arrested that day.

“The cases fall, one after another, like dominoes,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post. “The rectangular tile game dominoes, not the pizza place. Nothing sadder than a fallen pizza.”

In a previously unsolved Target theft, this time on May 17, police said William, 18, and Deon, 16, had stolen several pairs of brand-name headphones, as well as deodorant. On July 13, they said, William stole a phone case from Target — the same one he had on his phone when he and his brother were stopped by the police on Saturday.

But the greatest find for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office was William’s phone itself: a Galaxy S9, valued at $1,000. The phone had been reported stolen in Lake County in 2018, according to the office.

The Sheriff’s Office continued to make fun of the boys on Facebook in a series of hashtags directed at William, who was on probation for theft and criminal mischief before the incident, for getting his “impressionable brother,” to “go thieving with him.”

“#WellSeeingsHowYouLookUpToMeAndAll #SureWhyNotWhatsTheWorstThatCanHappen,” the sheriff’s office posted. “#TheFamilyThatStealsTogetherGetsIncarceratedTogether”

William was charged with three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, in addition to grand theft, three counts of retail theft and violation of probation. He is being held at the Polk County Jail. Deon was charged with three counts of retail theft, but has been released.

This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 8:52 PM.