An Ocklawaha woman was arrested after allegedly using a Loofah to illegally reduce prices on merchandise at Target at Rolling Acres Plaza in The Villages.
An officer responded to Target at 12:50 p.m. Friday, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. The asset protection lead advised that her security specialist had informed her of a repeat thief in the store, identified as 37-year-old Teesha Kay Beadle.
The Target staffer began surveilling Beadle, who was picking up bedding, bath and grocery items. She made her way to self-checkout and placed unscanned items into shopping bags. She also used a Loofah UPC tag that was priced at $2.99 to scan more expensive merchandise. She left the store with $181.58 in unpaid items, after which she was brought to the loss prevention office, the report said.
At that point, the Target staffer ran Beadle’s credit card through the store’s system. This showed when she shopped at the store previously and revealed two more theft incidents, the report said.
Security footage from another incident on April 26 showed Beadle scanning a Bullseye Sand Toy and a bottle of Dr. Teals bath salts. She did not scan another bottle of Dr. Teals but put it in a shopping bag. She did the same with a Mario plush toy, leaving the store with $21.88 in stolen merchandise, the report said.
That same day, she switched a UPC ticket off a cheaper pan and used that tag to scan for a more expensive RIO pan. She then used the same tag to scan a pan set that had originally been priced higher. She also put fabric softener, a Figment oven mitt, mosquito repellent sticks, curtain hooks, batteries and a hose nozzle into a shopping bag without scanning them. She subsequently left the store with another $193.65 in stolen goods, the report said.
Beadle was arrested on charges of two counts of petit theft ($100-750) and petit theft (property dwelling/curtilage <$40). The Iowa native was booked at the Lake County Jail and released after posting $3,000 bond.