Police failed to locate a suspected shop lifter after attempting to corner the suspect in an area near Alma School and Broadway roads in Mesa on Sunday, a department spokesman said.

Police dispatchers earlier in the afternoon said officers blanketed the area with 10 officers and a helicopter.

"PD set up a perimeter in the area; however, officers chose to break that down when the suspect wasn't located," said police spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing in an e-mail.

Wessing said he didn't know what the person was suspected of stealing.

Ed Balder, a resident of Alma Gardens Senior Citizen Mobile Homes Park near Alma School and Broadway, said he and a companion saw 20 to 30 police with rifles drawn searching the neighborhood.

Balder said residents were being told to stay inside.

"I walked outside (and) they forced me to go back into my house," he said Sunday afternoon. "It's pretty spooky."