ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997 TAG: 9704210029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA\THE ROANOKE TIMES
Four women are charged with shoplifting after police discover hundreds of dollars of frozen food, clothes, toys and candy in their car trunk.
Town police arrested four women - including a mother and her five-and-a-half-month pregnant daughter - on felony shoplifting charges after a search of the car they were traveling in revealed a trunk filled with frozen food, clothes, medicine and even a garment rack.
A police report filed by the investigating officer said the women, three of whom were from Bluefield, W.Va., and one from Eggleston in Giles County, had numerous items from the Christiansburg Wal-Mart as well as items from Kroger and Wal-Mart in Pulaski County.
Police arrested Corinna M. Gills, 21, Kathryn E. Stanley, 44, and Martha L. Hoback, 41, all of Bluefield; as well as Ethel S. Dowdy, 72, of Eggleston.
Each woman faces one felony and one misdemeanor count of shoplifting, except for Stanley who is only charged with one count of misdemeanor shoplifting in Pulaski.
Pulaski police said Christiansburg police also charged Gills with shoplifting. The exact charge made in Christiansburg was not immediately available.
The police report said the arrests resulted as follows: A town officer was stopped by a Wal-Mart security worker Tuesday afternoon while the officer was checking for parking violations. The security official told the officer he suspected several women of shoplifting and later said he had spotted one woman concealing several items of clothing under her jacket.
Eventually, police arrested all four women, and Gills gave a tearful statement to the officer, the report states.
Gills, who is pregnant, told the officer she had "left her money at home and just took the items." She also told the officer she got scared and left the store and told her mother, Stanley, about stolen items in the trunk of Stanley's car. Gills told police her mother also got scared and left the store.
The report states that the only statement Stanley would make was "that she didn't take anything." Hoback gave the same statement.
Several police officers assisted in the arrests and searched the trunk of Stanley's car. They used several grocery carts to divide up the items and return them to various stores.
An itemized list of the recovered property included $141.63 worth of merchandise from the Pulaski Wal-Mart; $310.89 worth of frozen meats, candy and crackers and stuffed animals from the Pulaski Kroger store; and $517.03 worth of medicine, cigarettes, sneakers, and frozen food such as pizza rolls from the Christiansburg Wal-Mart.
The women are scheduled to appear in Pulaski General District Court May 20 at 1 p.m.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB