Photo credit: Mt. Sterling Police

A savage assault on an elderly employee at Wal-Mart has locals outraged.

Law enforcement in Montgomery County, Kentucky say the incident occurred at the Mt. Sterling facility in the Lexington area.

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Police are seeking two suspects wanted in questioning for the shoplifting case that turned into a violent assault against an elderly man who was simply doing his job.

Authorities say that the 80 year old at Wal-Mart then attempted to stop the two suspects as they tried to exit the store with a full shopping cart of merchandise they didn't pay for.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kentucky man pepper-sprays elderly Walmart greeter<a href="https://t.co/sjmzTc0oaz">https://t.co/sjmzTc0oaz</a> <a href="https://t.co/PPB39PpmkY">pic.twitter.com/PPB39PpmkY</a></p>— ABC 33/40 News (@abc3340) <a href="https://twitter.com/abc3340/status/895063072418615296">August 8, 2017</a></blockquote>

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Investigators say at that time the male suspect turned around and sprayed the elderly worker in the face with pepper spray or mace and then ran out of the store with the merchandise.

Witnesses to the crime say that the greeter simply asked the man for his receipt, a common Walmart practice upon leaving the building.

"She had orange all over her face where they had sprayed her," said Kasey Pescor, who was only a few hundred feet away. "We got her in a wheelchair to make sure that she could walk, because she couldn't see anything."

The two criminals left the Walmart property in what's being described as a maroon minivan with Oklahoma license plates on the vehicle.

The Mt. Sterling Police are urging anyone with information on the suspects or the criminal to leave a private message to their Facebook page or contact the case officer, Officer Mike Price at 859-498-8899 or 859-498-8720.

A Walmart spokesperson said publicly that the elderly man is okay, but may need time off work to recover from the incident.

The company released the following statement following the attack:

<i>"We always work to keep our stores safe for associates and customers. We’re grateful no one was seriously hurt by this weekend’s incident, and we’ll help police with their investigation in any way we can. All other questions must be referred to local law enforcement.”</i>