What happened to a Modesto man who went looking for a literal steal on Black Friday weekend

A shopper saying “I’ll take it” usually indicates a purchase. That wasn’t the case at the Big 5 sporting goods store in Ceres on Saturday, though.

A Modesto man was shown by the store manager a couple of “AR-style” .22-caliber rifles and then asked to see a green, bolt-action .308-caliber rifle equipped with a scope and bipod. The high-powered rifle was unlocked and handed to the man, who said something like, “I’m taking this one,” and then did just that, Ceres police reported in a news release

Without paying, he fled out the door and got into a gold, 1999 Chrysler driven by a woman with dark hair, the manager told police. The manager got the license plate number, and Officer Jeremy Caron found the car registered to a woman on the 2600 block of Riverdale Avenue in southwest Modesto.

Caron watched surveillance video of the theft, while Officer Charles Rushing went to the Riverdale address, where he saw the Chrysler parked. A Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputy who was in the area told Rushing he’d had prior contact at the home with a man named Mark Mata.

Caron found a booking photo of Mata and positively identified him as the man in the Big 5 surveillance video.

Additional officers joined in staking out the house, and after several hours, Mata emerged. As he walked down the street carrying the rifle, he was stopped and taken into custody without incident. The rifle remained unloaded, Lt. Chris Perry said Tuesday morning. It was returned to the store.

Mata, 38, faces charges of shoplifting, possession of stolen property and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He remained in custody Tuesday morning, with bail set at $100,000.

This story was originally published November 27, 2018 at 8:49 AM.