Thieves use pepper spray to steal perfume

Two men threatened to pepper spray a Petaluma outlet store employee when they were caught stealing perfume from the store Saturday afternoon, police said.

At about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, employees at a store located in the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets noticed two men carrying messenger bags enter the store and walk to a perfume display, according to police. The men began loading the messenger bags with several boxes of perfume, police said.

When an employee confronted the suspects and told them to stop, one of the suspects pulled out a can of pepper spray and pointed it at the employee.

Police said the employee screamed and the suspects left the store without spraying the employee. The messenger bags containing about $800 worth of perfume were found outside the store and recovered, police said.

Mall security arrived and Petaluma police officers arrived at the scene, but were unable to locate any suspects.

Both men were described as standing between 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 5 inches tall. They were wearing black T-shirts, designer jeans and Nike Air Jordan shoes, police said.

Anyone who witnessed this incident or observed a suspect vehicle is asked to contact Petaluma police at (707) 778-4370.