Accused shoplifters' fight with store clerk caught on camera

CITRUS HEIGHTS, Calif. – Video of a confrontation at a California convenience store is going viral.

Witnesses said it began when a man and woman tried to walk out of the store with snacks they didn't pay for -- and the hot Cheetos went flying.

The last and most violent moments of the strong-arm robbery in Citrus Heights were replayed on the convenience store security monitors.

"I'm like OK dude, calm down, calm down. He’s like 'no no no,'" Wyatt Bennett, store clerk, said.

Bennett said it started Tuesday around 6 p.m. when a man and woman, seen in the surveillance video, were hauled out for allegedly shoplifting from the a.m.-p.m. on Madison in San Juan.

"And then her boyfriend got pretty upset at that part so he started knocking down some of the stuff from the front," Bennett said.

VIDEO: Gas station shoplifting fight

Bennett was on the phone with police when the couple hit and pushed him and the other store clerk who was trying to stop the two from walking out with food they didn't pay for.

"I didn't want them to start throwing punches at my boss or anything," Bennett said.

Meanwhile, a customer sitting outside in her car captured the now-viral video on her phone.

Georgia Peterson watched appalled as the chaos continued.

"She went to hit the clerk with the bag of chips. They blew up everywhere and then because she lost a couple bags of chips she turned around and got some more," Peterson said.

Then another man and woman joined in. The man was a customer trying to help, but the woman was not as friendly.

"She walked in, shoved me (and said), 'Don't touch my sister!' That's what I heard," Bennett said.

"She used her body and just like bulldozed," Peterson said.

The part that's sending the internet into a frenzy is when that woman headed straight for Peterson.

But instead of her phone, Peterson said she gave her a 7.5 million volt threat.

"I just grabbed my Taser and I was like OK," Peterson said.

No one was seriously hurt, but the victims are left in wonder of the senselessness of it all.

"Over hot Cheetos? Are they really that delicious?" Peterson said.

"Get a job," Bennett said.

The Citrus Heights Police Department is searching for the unidentified man and two unidentified women seen in the video.

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