Kirby Smart speaks out after two UGA football players charged in Walmart shoplifting case
University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart publicly addressed for the first time the shoplifting arrests of two UGA football players, calling their actions a case of poor decision-making.
"Both those guys [I'm] disappointed in their decision-making," Smart said during a Sugar Bowl press conference on Monday. "We always say decision-making is a skill, and if you make poor decisions, they pay the consequences for that. They're continuing to pay the consequences for that, and they'll finish up the consequences for that. I hope both of them make better decisions in the future."
Smart's comments come 10 days after the incident that led to the arrests of freshmen Boden "Bo" Walker and Dontrell Glover.
According to an incident report from the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, officers were called to a Walmart on Dec. 12 after store loss prevention stopped two men they said were attempting to leave the store with unpaid merchandise. A loss prevention employee told officers the items included paper towels, paper plates, Gatorade, pizza rolls, and Febreze products, among other items.
Police said the two men initially refused to go to the loss prevention office. One of them briefly ran out of the store before returning. When officers arrived, they detained both men and identified them as Walker and Glover, who told police they are UGA football players.
Walker and Glover told officers they did not intend to steal the items and said they may have lost track of what had been scanned. Walmart loss prevention took inventory of the recovered merchandise and decided to press charges based on the total amount of the items, which police said was around $120.
Some items had been partially paid for using an EBT card, but loss prevention was unable to process a refund. Police took temporary custody of the card and placed it into evidence for safekeeping.
Both players were charged with misdemeanor theft by shoplifting and transported to the Clarke County Jail, where custody was transferred to the Clarke County Sheriff's Office.
A Walmart supervisor contacted UGA about the incident, police said. Walker and Glover were also formally barred from the Walmart shopping center for two years.
Coach Smart did not specify whether Walker and Glover will play in the Sugar Bowl against Ole Miss on Jan. 1.