Man Smashes Liquor, Wine Bottles

The Columbus Dispatch ^ | December 18, 2001 | Matthew Marx

[buccaneer81]

Man smashes liquor, wine bottles

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Matthew Marx

Dispatch Staff Reporter

A Northwest Side man wielding a golf club smashed thousands of dollars worth of wine and liquor at the Big Bear store at West 5th and Grandview avenues last night.

Asad K. Thahim, 24, of 1450 King Ave. Apt. 35, is accused of creating a panic at the store when he pushed the manager to the floor and began slashing glass bottles.

Thahim walked up to the service counter and said it was against his religion for wine to be consumed and that he was going to smash every bottle in the place, witnesses told Columbus police.

Thahim also took a swing at Andrew Raymond, second-shift store manager, who called police.

Raymond refused to comment last night.

Columbus police charged Thahim with one felony count each of vandalism and inducing panic and one misdemeanor count of assault.

More than $50,000 worth of wine and liquor was destroyed, police estimated.

Thahim was in Franklin County jail early this morning.

He will appear in Franklin County Municipal Court today on those charges and some outstanding warrants from separate criminal and traffic offenses. In one of those cases, he is charged with smashing one 40-ounce bottle of beer on the floor of the Speedway gas station at 1626 W. 5th Ave. on Nov. 30.

[StoneColdGOP]

Tears... Oh my God this is horrible.

I'm so upset, I can hardly drink this wine...

[Cool Guy]

Bheese, you are here already :P

[Doctor Doom]

Hold me.

[StoneColdGOP]

It's okay man, it's okay. One day, we WILL get this mf'er...

[jjbrouwer]

Give the guy a break. He too was smashed.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

"The Police cleaned up the mess using straws"

That was my favorite part of the story.

[StoneColdGOP]

Probably some sick, twisted, anti-alcohol TALIBORNAGAIN type...

[Eaker]

This bastard deserves to spend about 5 minutes with a Texas drinker!!!

Eaker

PS: Send this peckerwood MY way!!

[discostu]

While I really want to laugh at this there are two ammendments in the constitution that say whackos like this can gather enough power to screw up the entire nation, at least for a few years (this really isn't that different than what the temperance movement did leading to Prohibition, they used axes though).

[Bella_Bru]

It's ok....drink it in memory of it's dead breathren....wrenched from this world before their time. Carelessly tossed onto the ground...never even had a chance to enjoy being downed and then returned at the porcelain altar.

[July 4th]

Remember when the Taliban did this in last summer at a Kabul hotel? They discovered a false wall that had been hiding bottles of alcohol from the time when the Northern Alliance was in power. Maybe this is a terrorist attack in disguise, and he's really a member of the Taliban...

[Junior]

Alcohol abuse!

[LibWhacker]

He should be put on a continuous alcohol drip for the next five years until $50,000 worth of the cheapest booze we make has passed through his liver.

[Bella_Bru]

Oh, Doom...come here.

(((((((((((((((((Doom))))))))))))))))))

[Dog Gone]

In one of those cases, he is charged with smashing one 40-ounce bottle of beer on the floor of the Speedway gas station at 1626 W. 5th Ave. on Nov. 30.

Not to stick up for this guy, but I know of about 80,000 fans in Cleveland and New Orleans who did the same thing this week.

[xm177e2]

When I saw the name and the crime, I immediately assumed "Islam." Then I read that "it was against his religion for wine to be consumed," but they refuse to name the religion. That's because the media has such a low opinion of us, they think if they give us the news straight, we'll go out and commit some hate crimes, so they lie to us and withhold information.

[aomagrat]

At least he didn't get the beer!