A TEAM of former marines doing a charity row tackled a shoplifter in Tesco after he assaulted a staff member.

Ex-Royal Marine Commando Matt Mason, from Clayton-le-Moors, was with fellow former marines Dom Rogers and Sam Humphries, when the incident happened at Tesco Superstore in Bury at around 1.30pm on Saturday.

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The group spotted a man trying to rip off security tags from stolen items before the thief was approached by a security guard.

CCTV footage then shows the man go to punch the security guard twice before running off out of the store.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Video shows Mr Mason and Mr Rogers then chasing after the man, before they manage to get him on the car park floor and grab him and bring him back to the store.

Mr Mason said the man, who he believed was 18 years old, was put into the store manager’s room. Staff waited for the police to arrive, who then arrested him.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Mason, who fought in Afghanistan, said of the incident: “We were doing a charity row at Tesco in Bury at the time.

“What must have been the world’s dumbest criminal was carrying a handful of items including perfume and a hair dryer and turned up in between our stand and the security stand near the main entrance.

“We saw him ripping off the security tag from the items.

“The man was then approached by a Tesco security man whom he then assaulted by going to punch him.

“As far as I know, the security man suffered no injuries, but the man then went to run out of the store.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Mason was doing the charity row with Mr Rogers and Mr Humphries for Royal Marines Charity and Plastic Oceans UK, added: “So we then ran off after the man and got him on the floor of the car park and then picked him up managed to bring him back to the store with his arms around his back.

“He was taken to a back room where the store manager was and waited there for the police.

“It was an 18-year-old man who was arrested.

“We were just shocked by the incident, especially with a man so young.”

Along with Mr Rogers, from Helmshore, and two other former Royal Marine Commandos, Mr Mason will row a boat across the North Atlantic Ocean - the same treacherous route taken by the doomed Titanic.

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The challenge, Oceans Revival 2020, will see the group row 3,700 miles from New York to London on a route that’s never been completed before.