Deputies: Customer tried to take ring

Finding the man who allegedly tried to snatch the pricey wedding ring off the finger of a convenience store clerk was easy. He made a purchase at the store using his credit card.

The incident unfolded shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday at the Tom Thumb store at 5515 Overseas Highway in Marathon in the Florida Keys.

The store clerk told deputies that a customer, later identified as Rogerio Mandelli, tried to forcefully remove her $15,000 wedding ring from her finger, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.

Mandelli was a regular customer at the convenience store, so the clerk wasn’t initially suspicious when he asked to see her ring.

But then, Mandelli, 42, reached over the counter and grabbed the ring, the clerk told deputies. She was able to clench her fist and pull her arm away.

“The clerk told deputies she believed the suspect would have tried harder to remove the ring had there not been other customers in the store,” Adam Linhardt, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said in a news release issued Monday.

According to the sheriff’s office, the clerk’s account of the incident was verified when investigators reviewed the store’s security surveillance video. Mandelli was quickly identified and apprehended because he had just made a purchase at the store with his credit card, investigator said.

He was charged with battery and robbery and booked into the Monroe County jail.