An Apopka woman was arrested for theft after claiming to be making a return using a piece of cardboard with stickers when confronted for theft.
Officers responded to Walmart, located at 2501 Citrus Blvd., around 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 23, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. Store loss prevention staff reported that while they were monitoring in-store surveillance cameras, they witnessed 38-year-old Krystle Renae McCray concealing items in a gray purse.
The loss prevention staff told dispatch that McCray went to the cash registers and left the store without buying anything. The item they saw her hide was still in her purse. Prior to the officers’ arrival, McCray was confronted by loss prevention, took out the stolen item and tried to leave the parking lot, the report said.
When an officer got to the scene, he found McCray at her vehicle and detained her in handcuffs. She was subsequently escorted to the loss prevention office inside the store. Several officers proceeded to review the in-store surveillance footage of the incident, the report said.
McCray was seen to have selected the item from a shelf in the sporting goods section of the store and placed it in her shopping cart. She went to the next aisle over, removed the security wrap from the item and tossed it under a shelf. She then moved the item from the shopping cart into her gray purse at the top of the cart before leaving her cart in the cash register area and leaving through the general merchant side of the store, the report said.
During an interview with loss prevention staff, they stated they confronted McCray outside the store. She pulled out the stolen item from her purse and claimed she came into the store with it because it was hers. She also showed them a piece of cardboard with yellow and orange stickers on it, claiming to be returning the item, the report said.
The staff advised that the piece of cardboard was from a completely different item’s packaging, and they had not used those stickers in years. McCray was also unable to produce a receipt for the item. They recovered the stolen item, a Garmin Vivid 4CV Transducer worth $180, without further issue, the report said.
Additionally, a criminal history check revealed McCray had two prior theft convictions. The first was for petit theft in June 2006, and the second was for petit theft (farm/transit) with one prior conviction in Nov. 2023, the report said.
McCray was ultimately arrested and taken to the LPD for the booking process. While at the facility, she made several spontaneous utterances, claiming to have been trying to return the item. But the details she gave regarding how she was going to make the return changed several times, the report said.
McCray said she had the receipt in her vehicle for the item, and she had the cardboard with the stickers which should have allowed her to return the item. She did not comment when an officer asked about what they saw in the surveillance footage, the report said.
After completing the booking process, McCray was charged with petit retail theft (two or more prior convictions). She was transported to Lake County Jail with bond set at $2,500.