- Jeremy Van Ert, 38, walked into a Kwick Trip store in Marshfield, WI, on Tuesday
- He was locked inside the beer cooler at midnight, the time beer sales end
- Six hours later he was found by a costumer and fled the store without paying
- Van Ert has been charged with retail theft and is being held in the Wood County Jail on a probation hold from a different case that required him to stay sober
Jeremy Van Ert was arrested after getting locked in a beer cooler for six hours and helping himself to drinks
A Wisconsin man under a court order to stay sober has been arrested after getting locked in a beer cooler for six hours and helping himself to drinks, according to police.
Jeremy Van Ert, 38, walked into a Kwik Trip store in Marshfield’s Central Avenue on Tuesday night, and was automatically locked inside the beer cooler when the clock hit midnight – the time beer sales end.
‘The subject found himself locked in the beer cooler, knew that Kwik Trip would not sell him any beer, so he decided to remain in the beer cooler,’ Marshfield Police Chief Rick Gramza told WAOW-TV.
According to the police report, Van Ert said he decided he might as well stay inside the cooler and drink the beer when he realized he was locked in, as reported by the Wausau Daily Herald.
However, the cooler reportedly had a glass door, and the store’s employees would have heard Van Ert if he had just knocked.
It wasn’t until a costumer went by the beer cooler at about 6am that Van Ert was found inside, before fleeing the store without paying for the beer, Gramza added.
The 38-year-old walked into a Kwik Trip store in Marshfield’s Central Avenue on Tuesday night, and was automatically locked inside the beer cooler when the clock hit midnight
He allegedly drank an 18 ounce bottle of Icehouse Beer and three cans of Four Loko. He also fell over a stack of 30 pack Busch Light Cans, breaking three of the cases open, according to Wausau Daily Herald.
Van Ert was later arrested and charged with retail theft and is being held in the Wood County Jail on a probation hold from a different case that required him to stay sober.