Cops Say Woman Used Stranger's Receipt to Pull off Scam on Busy Walmart Employees
On Dec. 28, Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook for all of their “social media sleuths.”
They requested the public’s help in identifying a woman pictured in surveillance images.
The woman was shopping at the Kings Highway Walmart on Dec. 27. She brought with her a Walmart receipt.
The receipt wasn’t her own, however. She likely found it on the ground, in the trash, or in a cart.
Most people wouldn’t use a receipt as a shopping list, but that is exactly what this woman did. She was using a stranger’s receipt to pull off a scam.
The woman walked around the store hunting for each item on the receipt. According to the Facebook post, she “passed all points of sale and returned the merchandise utilizing the receipt.”
Walmart employees working at the return desk are especially busy after Christmas.
The woman received $51.66 in cash for the returned items she never paid for in the first place.
Her backpack was also filled with $10.33 of hidden merchandise. She fled in a white van after being confronted.
The woman has a tattoo on her right ankle and a tattoo of a crown on the left side of her neck. She now has fraud and larceny charges awaiting her when she is found.
One comment on the Facebook post read: “Why didn’t I think of that?” The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office personally responded.
They replied, “If someone is now inclined to use this method to steal something after seeing it on our fb page, then they too will have a post especially for them on our page.
“We definitely don’t encourage it and making people aware of the tricks criminals use is the best prevention.”
WFTX interviewed Walmart shopper Debbie Walsh. She was surprised surveillance cameras didn’t deter the scammer.
Walsh said, “People are desperate or maybe they haven’t been caught before so they just keep on going until they do.”
A Walmart corporate spokesperson shared that they try to stay on top of scammers’ methods so that they can catch them and prevent it from continuing.
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