An Athens man was arrested Thursday night for stealing a shopping cart and beer from Kroger after police found him pushing the shopping cart down West Broad Street, according to an Athens-Clarke County Police report. 

Police stopped Tommy Sturdivant, 41, after they noticed him pushing a grey shopping cart full of beer down West Broad Street and staggering close to oncoming traffic. When they began talking to Sturdivant, police reported they noticed a strong alcoholic odor coming from the man. 

When police asked Sturdivant why he was pushing a shopping cart down West Broad Street, Sturdivant replied "I am drunk. I don't know why." Sturdivant told police that he was coming from Walgreens, and that he got the shopping cart and beer from there. He had four 30-count boxes of Budweiser in his cart, which police later discovered Walgreens does not carry. 

When questioned, Sturdivant told police he got the beer from a bootlegger off of Waddell Street. Police did not believe him because of the shopping cart and the fact that the beer was still cold.

Since the shopping cart was from Kroger, police checked with Kroger employees to see if they recognized the man. Sturdivant repeatedly changed his story when talking to police, first saying that he went to Kroger to exchange the cans for bottles, then later saying he never went to Kroger. He also said, after police found out he had a barring notice from the Alps Road Kroger, that he does not go to Kroger because he is barred there.

The manager at Kroger later told police that surveillance had caught a man loading beer into a shopping cart and walking out of the store.

Sturdivant was arrested and charged with criminal trespass, removing or abandoning a shopping cart, public intoxication and felony shoplifting, due to prior convictions. He was transported to Clarke County Jail.

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