Video of Dollar General Employee Hitting Alleged Thief Viewed 10M Times

A video of a Dollar General employee hitting an alleged thief with a car has gone viral on social media.

The clip has so far been viewed more than 10 million times since it began circulating over the weekend.

The initial footage was from a home security camera and was shared on Twitter by user 4Mischief. It praised the employee for confronting the alleged thief.

The video was captioned: "This Dollar General manager deserves a raise. She has had enough of this mans thieving ways and runs him down with her car and retrieves some of the stores merchandise."

Another Twitter page that shared a longer video of the incident stated that the incident happened in California, on May 11 at around 11:20 a.m. Newsweek has not been able to independently verify this information.

The footage showed the woman riding alongside the alleged thief in a residential area before she turns the car into the pavement in order to knock the man off his bicycle.

This caused the man to fall to the ground and the allegedly stolen goods to scatter in a stranger's driveway.

The woman is then seen exiting her car and confronting the alleged thief. The pair can be heard cursing at one another as the employee attempts to put the goods in her car.

She also throws the man's bicycle and argues with him about other alleged instances where he has been seen stealing from the store.

The alleged thief remarks that the situation is "not that serious" and that multiple people steal from the stores.

He also warns he could take legal action against the employee for hitting him with her car. The woman finishes putting some of the goods in her car and proceeds to drive off as the man gathers the rest of the goods.

Despite some social media users commending the woman for her actions, many more suggested her actions risked serious legal repercussions.

Some social media users remarked the employee's actions could amount to assault with a deadly weapon. This is defined as assaulting another person with a deadly weapon or using force that is likely to produce a great bodily injury.

In this context, a "deadly weapon" could include a baseball bat, knife, brass knuckles, unloaded firearm used as a club, vehicle, bottle, blunt object among other items.

The law firm goes on to note that an individual could face punishment that includes imprisonment in state prison for two, three or four years, imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, a fine up to $10,000, or both.

Newsweek has contacted Dollar General via email for comment.