ROCKLAND, Maine — A 39-year-old Waldoboro woman with a lengthy theft record was arrested New Year’s Eve after being accused of stealing a cartload of toys from Wal-Mart.
Jessica Alexander was charged with felony theft and violating a condition of release, and was taken to the Knox County Jail in Rockland. She made an initial court appearance Monday afternoon in Knox County Unified Court where bail was set at $1,000 cash.
According to an affidavit filed by Thomaston police, a staffer at the Wal-Mart in Augusta became suspicious when a man came into the store on Dec. 9 to return a large amount of toys. The clerk asked him why he was returning the items and he said he had purchased them for his daughter but she died earlier that day in a car crash.
The receipt given by the man indicated the toys had been purchased earlier that day from the Wal-Mart in Thomaston. After reimbursing the man for the toys, the clerk notified store security about the suspicious story.
Wal-Mart officials then reviewed security footage from the Thomaston store around the time shown on the receipt and saw a woman — later identified as Alexander — going into the store and purchasing toys and then leaving that cart outside the store. She immediately walked back inside and loaded another cart with the identical set of toys and went through an empty cash register line holding the earlier receipt, leaving the store without paying for the second load of toys, Thomaston Police Chief Kevin Haj said Monday.
Haj said he did not know the specific connection between the man and Alexander but that the toys returned to Augusta were the same as the ones stolen from Thomaston.
The man named in the affidavit also is expected to be charged, Haj said. The BDN is not naming the man until charges are filed.
The value of the toys returned to the Augusta store totaled $369.
The theft charge against Alexander was elevated to felony level because she has prior theft convictions in Knox County from January 2007, August 2009 and April 2012.