A woman with five convictions for retail theft was arrested Sunday afternoon at Walmart in Leesburg.
A loss prevention officer observed 33-year-old Brandy Sue Appleton of Leesburg in the shoe department. The employee saw Appleton put several items of clothing into a large black purse. Appleton proceeded to walk to the self-checkout area in the front of the store, where she ran some items she had in her cart through the scanner and placed those items in shopping bags. Appleton did not scan any items she had put in her purse. When she was past the point where she could have paid for the items, she was stopped by the loss prevention employee who escorted her to the loss prevention office.
When a Leesburg police officer arrived at the store, he was given a receipt for the 11 items found in Appleton’s purse which showed the items value to be $137.18.
A records check revealed that Appleton has five previous theft convictions and was on probation in Lake County for grand theft at the time of this arrest. The Fort Lauderdale native was transported to the Lake County Jail where she is being held without bond.
