A brazen thief intent on stealing a handful of designer handbags pushed aside a clerk at the Bargain Shoes store on Monday afternoon during his getaway.

According to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, the still-unidentified thief came into the store and grabbed an armful of about 20 designer Coach handbags valued at $225 each, or $4,500 overall.

As the man attempted to walk straight out the door, police said a store clerk stepped in his way to stop him.

The man responded by pushing the clerk down and fleeing from the parking lot in a two-tone green car with peeling paint.

Initially called out as a robbery, the incident led numerous members of the Gaffney Police Department and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office to race to the scene and to scour the roadways leading away from Bargain Shoes.

Initial reports led responding police officers to search for a car with North Carolina license plates, but the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office incident report lists no such description of the getaway car's tags.

The thief is described in a police report as a black male, about 6 feet tall, weighing 140 pounds, with dreadlocks.