BREWER, Maine — An Old Town woman was charged with two felonies after she took bedding from the Bangor Walmart last week then attempted to return the stolen item at the Brewer Walmart later in the day, police in both cities said.
Jessica Johnson, 28, and Paul Russell, 30, both of Old Town, were stopped by store security at the Brewer Walmart at around 1 p.m. March 19, but took off running, Brewer police Cpl. Paul Gauvin said Tuesday.
“They ran out the parking lot and over to Downeast Toyota and we got them on Wild Rose Drive,” the corporal said.
Both Johnson and Russell were charged with felony theft because they both have prior theft convictions, Gauvin said.
“Shoplifting is not a Class C felony” typically, he noted.
Johnson was with another man earlier in the day when she went to the Bangor Walmart, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said. A store employee reported the theft at around 9:20 a.m.
“She returned a DVD and then selected an item and put it in her cart without paying for it,” the sergeant said. “She tried to return the comforter she stole from Bangor over to Brewer.”
Between Bangor and Brewer, “she got charged with two felony thefts,” Gauvin said.
Both Johnson and Russell were taken to Penobscot County Jail after being caught in Brewer. He has since been released. Johnson was found guilty in court last week and was sentenced to 15 days in jail, the Brewer corporal said.
Johnson was convicted of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer last month and was ordered to pay a $500 fine, according to court listings printed in the Bangor Daily News. She was convicted of the same crime in October 2009 and was fined $250, the BDN listings state.
Very sad, wasting their lives away. We get one trip through this life, these two are making it a hard ride … Now book-em Danno…
And making it hard for others….no man (or woman) is an island to themselves. This will take up a lot of time and money !! The courts are full of ppl like this. What a WASTE.
I was in a Walmart today and someone tried to return two ancient containers of mayonnaise. The product was separating so you could tell it wasn’t fit to eat. And they didn’t have the receipt either. So there are all kinds of fools out there thinking Walmart owes them a free ride.
What a lovely pair.
Title on the stolen DVD: “Dumb and Dumber.”
lovely people
What is the story with Old Town and arrests?
The John Baldacci Dump wrecked that town..
I thought Mama Baldacci’s was located in Bangor?
It was.. it was closed and the building sold to Greg Lovely of Newport. Baldacci ran MB’s into the ground like he did the State of Maine!
That town is a dump. ha ha
Old Town is just one big slum with over priced moldy creepy apartments and overly renovated dump houses. And the entire place smells like cabbage from the paper mill. If it wasn’t for Financial Aid coming into the school both Orono and Old Town would dwindle away. That whole place mooches off Federal Aid that the kids pour into that place.
bath salts…gotta be
I didn’t know Wal-Mart had anything worth Stealing…I never go there, I’m just guessing…
The 6 Walton heirs are now worth $93 billion and they still can’t afford to give their employees a raise and get them off “public assistance” wages. I do not shop there either.
I don’t like that WalMart puts used items back onto the shelves and sells them as new. For example there is someone using their Holmes Air Filters and returning them and WalMart knowly puts them back on the shelf. Or unless a customer is walking in and switching them. Never buy a Holmes air filter if it is NOT wrapped in PLASTIC inside the box (the box itself isn’t wrapped just the filter). I also noticed the filters slightly discolored. A dead give away that they are slightly used. I go to Target now. If you open the box and look inside you will clearly see that if it is in fact a new filter it is wrapped in plastic inside the box. I’ve also ordered these filters from the Holmes website and they always come wrapped in plastic. I also had to haggle down a price of some sneakers I got because they had scuff marks on the heal and some dirt inside them, also a couple pine needles, and the area just below the laces were bent looking. Obviously been worn more than just “in store”. But Wal-Mart has gotten too big for it’s britches these days and is cutting corners. Just look at some of their rotting produce that they can’t turn over.
Dumb, but a bit enterprising. I wonder how much of this stuff goes on in local retail?
too darned much!
How does one steal something then return it for cash? I mean doesn’t one have to have a receipt to return something for money?
Time for Johnson to stay in jail.
At 50K a year? Just how long can we afford to keep him on ice? Forever?
Johnson is a she not a him but they both deserve to be in jail.
Those new blankies would have been cozy in the cold jail cell tonight.
Umm someone from Old Town in the news again.
” Johnson was found guilty in court last week and was sentenced to 15 days in jail, the Brewer corporal said.”
Umm, if she was sentenced to 15 days last week, shouldn’t she still be in jail? What the…?
Round and round we go. Arrest them, book them, bail them and let them go. Why even go to all the trouble of arresting them in the first place?
Why? Job security.
It said he was released but what makes you think she’s not in jail still?
This is one of the reasons the “greeter” (child abduction prevention) checks receipts occasionally as you exitt through the gates of hell.
They sometimes would put a paid sticker on items. Shifty employees realized a reel of those orange stickers was worth a lot of money on the street.
This particular post is why you read forums. you learn things you dont learn easily elsewhere.
The days of stealing and returning items to store service desks, as well as lying when returning items at retail service desks is coming to an END.
Every single item sold at retail stores , from a stick of gum to big items, will have a unique microscopic RFID tag on them. Many of items you buy at stores today ~~~already~~~ have the tags on them.
The RFID tag records when the item was bought. what time and date. Who bought the item. what was paid for the item. what store the item was bought from. the return history of the person retuning the item and patterns of abuse of returning items—say you buy/return lawn movers every year.
How would it tell you who bought the item if it was originally paid for with cash?
Sounds like a Big Brother conspiracy to me but I know I’ve had to show my I.D. when returning an item…maybe they ARE tracking us!
Target already posts the right to refuse any return….[regardless of receipt or no receipt].
Stop posting nonsense, what you are saying is completely inaccurate. Prove it.
http://consumerist.com/2009/12/satellite-photos-of-walmarts-super-secret-data-center.html
I’ve never had to show ID when returning an item, just had to sign the receipt.
Every item you buy now is scanned. The POS scanner will activate the RFID tag and places the information on the tag.
That didn’t answer my question at all. The original question was “How would it tell you who bought the item if it was originally paid for with cash?”
100% incorrect. Not even legal. Trash like this is why forums are so often wrong.
the folks over at Target are upset……Wal Mart stole their press…..again !
When are people going to learn that they have to live their lives as if they were on surveillance 24/7?!
True but have you seen the pictures and video they show? It’s usually very cheap video surveillance and the peoples faces are blurry and hard to make out. It’s an invitation for more crime. They need to get better cameras. I’ve seen better images taken on my own cell phone. ha ha
does anyone read that there are cameras and security people that work at most stores these days people need to get jobs and not do crack these two look a mess.. jail would do them good
I went to UMaine with a guy (lets call him Nick) that would buy jeans and other clothes from K-mart and returning them. He’d get away with returning used items in exchange for new ones. He just wouldn’t wash the jeans and he’d iron them at night. If one had a stain on it he’d use spot remover. They caught him so they banned him from the store but then he tried to send me and his girlfriend into the store to exchange what he had left. I refused to go in. She ended up getting caught because some of the clothes were obviously worn and it was at a time when Wrangler or Levi had changed the leather patch logo on the jeans, so the store knew they were used/old. People are so stupid not to mention selfish. My niece works at Walmart and she does well to deal with upset and angry customers but a lot of them come in trying to scam them, the customer will actually get very upset as if they are telling the truth and believe their own lies. I wish my niece wouldn’t work there. She’s too smart and too nice of a young woman to be dealing with low life trash that shop at Walmart.
“I went to UMaine with a guy (lets call him Nick) that would buy jeans and other clothes from K-mart and returning them”.
Lol. Did he “returning” a lot of items or just one?
For those who say, get a job!!! you hire them!!!