A Leesburg woman turned herself Friday after admitting to keying a stranger’s car in the Walmart parking lot because she thought it was someone else’s.
On the evening of July 13, an officer with the Fruitland Park Police Department responded to the Walmart parking lot, located at 2501 Citrus Blvd., Leesburg, according to an affidavit of probable cause out of Lake County. A suspect, later identified as 60-year-old Alberta Jackson, had vandalized a female customer’s vehicle.
The customer advised that she got to the store at noon and shopped inside for about an hour. She went back to her vehicle and drove to her next destination, at which point she realized someone had scratched the left side of her car. She believed someone used a key to leave a deep gouge in the paint on both of the doors on the left side of her SUV, the affidavit said.
She denied being in any recent altercations or disagreements with anyone and could not say who would have done it. She estimated the cost of repair to be about $5,000, the affidavit said.
Further inspection of the SUV revealed a deep scratch that was down to bare metal along the left doors. The scratch was not consistent with damage caused by another vehicle due to its length and height, the affidavit said.
The officer then spoke with an asset protection employee who allowed him to look at surveillance footage of the incident. He saw the customer’s vehicle arrive around noon. A few minutes later, Jackson left the store through the southern exit, the affidavit said.
She walked in a northeasterly direction, put her shopping cart just outside the travel lane and turned around to walk in the direction of the customer’s SUV. She walked along its left side with her right arm outstretched as if she was dragging something down the side. She continued in a southern direction before turning east and leaving the view of the camera, the affidavit said.
They did not find any footage of Jackson getting into a vehicle in the parking lot. However, the asset protection employee tracked her path backward from the time she damaged the SUV. He found that she used self-checkout and paid for her items with cash, the affidavit said.
The officer went to the customer’s residence to talk about his findings. He showed her a photo of Jackson, but she did not know her beyond saying she looked familiar. She stated Jackson looked like someone she saw at a place called “Internet” in Lady Lake, the affidavit said.
On July 15, the officer spoke with her once more about the case. She had spoken to several individuals who identified Jackson. An old neighbor informed her that Jackson worked at Beacon College in downtown Leesburg. She did not know her and could not think of a reason as to why Jackson would damage her vehicle, the affidavit said.
The officer contacted Jackson over the phone the following day and confirmed she had been at Walmart on July 13. She initially stated that nothing had happened. He told her that he did not feel like she was being honest and stressed the importance of her doing so, the affidavit said.
Jackson then stated she walked out of Walmart and saw a car that she believed belonged to a woman who she was recently in a physical altercation with. She walked up to the car and “keyed it.” She was not sure who the vehicle belonged to, the affidavit said.
She ultimately turned herself in Friday morning to face a warrant charging her with criminal mischief ($1,000 or more). She was transported to Lake County Jail and released after posting $2,500 bond.