By Dan Shulman

CANTON, Mass. — Police are continuing to search for a suspect accused of shoplifting from Shaw’s Supermarket in Canton on Thursday night.

The incident took place in the Cobb’s Corner Plaza around 8:30 p.m. The suspect was spotted leaving Shaw’s Supermarket with stolen items in his hand and ran into another store inside the shopping center, police said.

“He nabbed some food out of Shaw’s and ran into Marshalls,” said Joseph Kelleher, a Canton police officer. “I don’t want to get into it at the moment as we’re still trying to gather information.”

Authorities are unsure if the suspect stole any merchandise from Marshalls, but they said he walked out of that store and then drove away in a Toyota Camry with Massachusetts license plate 4PS387.

Police traced the car to an apartment on Washington Street in Canton where a stakeout began for the suspect. Officers approached the unit and found no one home at the time.

The suspect, whose name was not revealed, is described as a white man about 6-feet tall. He was said to be wearing black, nylon pants with white stripes on the side and a grey hooded sweatshirt.

The store manager at the Marshalls was unable to disclose any details about the case and refused to comment further.

Anne Rooney, a retired teacher and frequent shopper at Shaw’s, was puzzled by the incident.

“It seems pretty rare for something to like this to affect Canton,” she said.

Brett Casey, a student at Massasoit Community College in Canton, said he hadn’t heard about many crimes in the neighborhood.

“Hopefully this isn’t a trend of things like this in the area,” he said.

This is not the first time the Canton Shaw’s has been targeted for shoplifting; a similar incident occurred in January 2016 when a man stole more than $500 worth of baby formula from the store.

The branch manager at the Canton Shaw’s was not available to comment.

One store employee, Dan Goldberg of Stoughton, was unaware of what had happened until he saw the police officer enter the store.

“Honestly I didn’t think anything had happened,” Goldberg said. “My manager came downstairs frantically and then started speaking with the cops and then I realized something was wrong.”

Anyone with additional information about the incident is urged to notify the Canton Police Department by visiting the Online Tips page on their website.