Shoplifter threatens to give Durham shoe store employee HIV with syringe, police say

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A customer carrying a medical syringe threatened to give an employee HIV at a Durham shoe store Monday night.

The altercation began when an employee noticed the customer stealing merchandise at a New Balance store at Renaissance Center, the shopping center across Fayetteville Road near The Streets at Southpoint. When the employee confronted the suspect, they pulled out a syringe and threatened to give the employee HIV, according to Durham Police Department.

It's the second such report that police have recently logged.

The incident was recorded as an armed robbery because of the use of a syringe as a weapon.

Monday morning at a nearby Buffalo Wild Wings, a man robbed someone of roughly $20,000 worth of jewelry at gunpoint before taking off in a car.