The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog
A Florida woman was arrested after allegedly purchasing a magnet to assist her in stealing from a retail store in the mall by using it to remove security devices from the clothing and merchandise.
Just before midnight on June 27, an officer with the Clearwater Police Department pulled over a moped with a female passenger. When he approached, he identified the passenger as someone with an active arrest warrant from Oklahoma. The officer let the woman know she was being detained, and he noticed she was holding several bags. When he began looking through them, the officer became suspicious when he thought he saw clothing that still had the security tags attached. He looked through the rest of the bags, which also reportedly had locked tags affixed, and allegedly discovered many additional pieces of merchandise that he believed had been stolen. While inspecting the contents of her purse, the officer reportedly found a large magnet.
According to reports, when discussing what was found, the woman told the officer she purchased the magnet on Amazon, and that she was able to use it to take the security tags off items. She allegedly said she took the items she was holding from the Clearwater Mall location of Burlington Coat Factory by simply walking out of the store and planned to use the magnet to take the tags off later.