Shoppers team-up for big takedown

SANTA FE (KRQE) - Sam’s Club surveillance video recently caught frantic shoppers rush an alleged shoplifter armed with a knife, attempting to steal some DVDs.

The group got the man to the ground, store employees tie him up while another shopper pulls out a pistol to keep him down. When police arrived they discovered Adam Lovato was tied to three separate crimes.

When police took Lovato’s keys, he told them they belonged to his girlfriend’s car. Turns out they really belonged to a stolen car. A stolen car that one man says ran him over the day before.

"Mostly the swelling is what's kind of hurting," said Kenneth Barela who has badly bruised legs.

Barela says he was working in his burrito truck in Santa Fe Friday when a woman came up and ordered a burrito. He says when he handed her the burrito, she lunged at him, ripping his bank bag from his hands.

He chased her out of the truck and through the parking lot as she threw the money to men inside the stolen car.

Barela says it was a knee-jerk reaction that had him hanging on the car, being dragged forty yards until he lost his grip and fell under the car.

"You know what, it didn't hurt at first because the adrenaline was going. About an hour later when we were in the ambulance, that's when it started to puff up," said Barela.

Police can't put Lovato at the scene of the burrito stand theft. But they say the same woman who stole the 50-bucks in the bank bag was also at the Sam's Club with Lovato. She escaped without being caught.

Police say they know who the woman is and that she has a background of drug use and property crime.

Lovato is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, auto theft and shoplifting.