A woman was arrested after allegedly snatching a tip jar from a Leesburg business.
Melissa Gordon, 41, and her boyfriend on Thursday afternoon entered the BP Auto Spa located on 14th Street, according to a Leesburg Police Department arrest report. The man approached the clerk and requested an employment application. As the man was filling out the application, Gordon grabbed the tip jar from the counter and ran out of the store. The man followed her out of the store, heading toward Leesburg High School. The clerk ran out of the store and yelled for them to come back. When they didn’t return, he dialed 911.
Leesburg police caught up with Gordon and the man at the entrance to Popeye’s restaurant on 14th Street. The man said that he went into the BP store to fill out a job application when Gordon suddenly ran from the store. He initially said she did not steal anything, but eventually admitted to officers that Gordon threw the tip jar in the bushes near the high school.
Gordon claimed that her boyfriend forced her to steal the tip money.
While the officers were speaking to the BP clerk who had come to the arrest location, an officer watched Gordon reach into the back of her shorts and throw a bundle of cash into the bushes next to the building. The bundle consisted of $35.
Gordon was arrested on a felony charge of theft. She was booked at the Lake County Jail on $2,000 bond.
