BATON ROUGE — A man is in custody after being pulled from a pond after stealing hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from Walmart on Burbank Drive on Tuesday, East Baton Rouge Parish deputies said.

Deputies arrested the man after he ran into a field between the store and the nearby BREC soccer fields. The man is expected to be charged with theft, deputies said

A helicopter engaged in the search for the thief, already in the area on patrol.