Police use Taser on 77 yr old shoplifter www.privateofficer.com

PORTSMOUTH NH May 28 2010 – Three days after his 77th birthday, a Massachusetts man was Tasered by a Portsmouth police officer and arrested for theft and resisting arrest yesterday.

Police said an officer responded to the BJ’s Wholesale store on Woodbury Avenue for a report of a suspected shoplifter around 11:30 a.m. When the officer got there, he encountered the suspect, Richard Maynard of Reading, Mass., in the store bathroom trying to open an item with a folding pocket knife, police said. The officer said he ordered Maynard to drop the knife and, when he didn’t, used a stun gun.

Police said Maynard was treated at Portsmouth Hospital before being arrested. He was released on $1,000 personal recognizance bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on June 22