Dumb shoplifter tries stealing $727.86 in items while 75 police officers are in store for 'Shop with a Cop' charity event

A woman who tried to shoplift $727.86 in merchandise from a Michigan Walmart over the weekend didn't get very far — namely because 75 police officers were in the store for a "Shop with a Cop" charity event.

What are the details?

State troopers from the Brighton Post were participating in Saturday's event at the Walmart Store in Genoa Township, police said. Genoa Township is about an hour northwest of Detroit.

Police said Shop with a Cop gives area children, through donations from local businesses, an opportunity to partner with police officers and shop for themselves and family.

"We bring children that might otherwise not have a good Christmas get to come to the store," Lt. Rene Gonzalez of the Michigan State Police told WJBK-TV. "They get $100, sometimes a $150 gift card to go and shop for themselves or family."

Amid all the good cheer — not to mention a high concentration of law enforcement personnel — one woman got the bright idea to try a bit of shoplifting.

Police said a Walmart staff member notified a trooper participating in Shop with a Cop that a female was trying to steal $727.86 in merchandise from the store.

The 62-year-old suspect just loaded up her cart and waltzed through self-checkout, WJBK said.

"Groceries, clothes, all kinds of stuff," Gonzalez told the station. "It wasn't bagged up. And then she walked out of the store with it."

She ignored a clerk who asked for her receipt, made her way to her car, and then began putting items inside her vehicle, WJBK reported.

Police said the trooper Walmart notified had another officer look after the child he was with and then caught up to the suspect in the parking lot. Police said the suspect, strangely enough, had parked her car next to a gaggle of police patrol vehicles there for the Shop with a Cop event.

"I do have to say it surprised me because when I'm driving a patrol car, people slow down," Gonzalez remarked to the station regarding the brazen nature of the caper. "When you see 75 cops in the store, I mean, I don't know if maybe they thought we were too busy."

While the trooper was able to go back inside and finish up the event, WJBK said the suspect was arrested and taken to Livingston County Jail. The station added that while she bonded out, she will be charged with retail fraud.

WJBK said court records indicates she has no priors — just some traffic tickets out of East Lansing — and that it will release her name once she’s charged.

'Shop with a Cop' shoplifter attempts $700 theft amid charity eventyoutu.be

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