Don't even THINK about Hassling the Hoff!

A Connecticut Cumberlands Farms store clerk was critically injured while desperately trying to thwart the theft of two ad signs featuring "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff.

The cutout signs, which feature Hasselhoff cheesily hyping Cumberland Farms' drink "Iced Hoffee," have been a popular target for thieves, who have stolen more than 550 of the signs from the chain's stores in the Northeast, according to published reports.

Hasselhoff appeared last month in a new online ad featuring the cool concoction that riffs on his nickname.

The Connecticut Post newspaper reported that early Tuesday, a Cumberland Farms clerk in Shelton, Conn., spotted a man getting out of a black SUV and cut down two of the Iced Hoffee signs featuring the toothy actor's visage off of a pole, and then put the ads in the car.

When the clerk tried to stop the crook, he was hit by the fleeing SUV, dragged behind it, and flipped onto his head, The Post reported, citing police.

The unidentified worker was listed in critical condition in Bridgeport Hospital.

Police are searching for the SUV, which contained two men and a woman.

—By CNBC's Dan Mangan. Follow him on Twitter @_DanMangan

