Couple steal beef jerky, threaten witnesses

 DESTIN — A man stole three packages of beef jerky from a Fill Ups Food Store on Monday, then chased down the witnesses with his wife before lawmen caught them.

Leigh Stephen Cann Jr., 22, is charged with retail theft, burglary to an occupied conveyance, retaliating against a witness, assault and criminal mischief. His wife, 26-year-old Shannon Kelly Cann, is charged with burglary to an occupied conveyance, retaliating against a witness, battery, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence.

Deputies said the Canns were at the Fill Ups on Harbor Boulevard when he stole the jerky. They threatened witnesses in the parking lot and then chased them when they fled — all the way to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s station on Stahlman Avenue, where he punched through their car’s window and made verbal threats while she began punching one witness, according to their arrest reports.

A deputy pulled them over at Palmetto Drive and Azalea Drive, where Leigh Cann said, “I attempted to pay for the beef jerky but that [expletive] clerk would not take my money,” the deputy wrote. Shannon Cann resisted arrest and struck the deputy during the arrest, but later “was apologetic and she begged not to be taken to jail,” he added.