A woman who triggered an alarm at a Bronx clothing boutique evaded a 42-year-old security guard who tried to stop her, then returned to the shop, sprayed hair spray in his face and lit the stream on fire, authorities say.
Cops say the security guard was working at the Hot Point Clothing Boutique on East Fordham Road around 5 p.m. April 28 when the woman set off the alarm. It wasn't clear what kind of alarm she triggered or why. The guard asked her to stop and she refused; the two scuffled and the woman left the store, cops say.
Later, she came back with an aerosol can and sprayed the guard in the face, then lit the hair spray stream on fire in an attempt to burn him, cops say. The guard backed off and the woman fled the scene.
"It was serious," a coworker of the guard, Mike Arce, told News 4. "She turned that can of spray into a weapon!"
Arce said his co-worker is doing OK, and that he's thankful the situation wasn't worse.
"If the aerosol would have got on him he would have been completely burned," Arce said. "We would have had a fire in here. All this is clothes! It would have been crazy."
He added, "She's gonna hurt somebody. It's not only her getting arrestd, it's about her getting help... it's not a normal thing for someone to do."
Police have identified the suspect as 27-year-old Charae Morgan. Anyone with information about her is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
