Stock image shows Hurricane Police at 90 South 700 West in Hurricane, Utah on October 20, 2023.Photo by Ron Chaffin, St. George News
ST. George — Two Southern California women were arrested over the weekend after spending the night in Washington County jail for two retail theft cases in which merchandise totaling more than $2,000 was allegedly stolen from stores in various jurisdictions.
According to charges filed in support of the arrest, officers responded to a report of a retail theft at Walmart, 3400 W. Hurricane, shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday.
Officers learned that two women had reportedly been seen leaving the store without paying for items. Police also received a description of the suspect’s vehicle.
Officers spotted the vehicle and began a pursuit with their emergency lights activated. The driver veered off the road to pass another vehicle traveling northbound along North 3400 West. After passing through several streets with the officer behind, the driver stopped the vehicle at 3380 W. North.
While speaking with one of the residents, Vanessa Marisela Garcia, 36, of Riverside, Calif., the officer observed that the two women had a description of the suspects involved in the Walmart theft. I noticed that they matched. The passenger in the back seat was later identified as Makara Jewel Lepage, 35, of Hesperia, Southern California.
When questioned, both men told officers they paid for all items before leaving the store and denied stealing anything from the store. The report also states that Lepage told police that he paid for the items using an app on his cell phone and showed the officer the receipt on his phone.
When the officer asked to see the receipt again to check the time stamp, the suspect said he could not get the receipt but said he could get the information if he returned to the store.
When the officers returned home, they spoke with a loss prevention manager who said one of the officers followed the women through the store while they retrieved a number of items left in the car, and then scanned them. It is said that he left the self-checkout area without saying anything. or payment for the product.
Lepage continued to search for receipts on his cell phone, but was only able to retrieve one receipt for purchasing a birthday card earlier that day, and “no other receipts were found,” the officer said. .
Investigators learned that video footage appeared to show the suspects leaving the store without paying for items totaling more than $500. The two were taken into police custody on suspicion of stealing from a retail store.
While the hurricane was still active, a Washington police officer stopped a suspect at a Walmart store on Telegraph Street after filling a “cart full” of merchandise and leaving the store without paying, according to charging documents filed. were dispatched to a retail theft incident involving two individuals. together with the court.
When officers arrived at the store, they discovered that the suspected theft involved two women who got into a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck after the incident.
Surveillance camera footage shows one of the suspects inserting a paper card into a POS machine to pay for an item and then pressing his mobile phone against the scanner, which shows the payment declined. A message flashed.
Neither suspect “actually made any attempt to scan the items in the cart,” the officer wrote, before the two pushed the cart out of the store, where they got into a pickup truck with California plates. It has also been witnessed. The employee also provided the officer with the license plate number.
As Washington police continued to search for the suspects reported in the Telegraph as being involved in the theft, two suspects matching the description of the two people they were looking for in the Hurricane incident were arrested. I learned that it was done.
When City of Washington officers responded to the scene of Hurricane’s arrest, they positively identified the two women seen in surveillance footage from the Telegraph Street store.
Both suspects were then transported to the Washington County Jail on misdemeanor theft charges;A third-degree felony count of retail theft has been added in connection with the theft charges in Washington.
The next day, Garcia was released on $5,000 bail and Lepage was released on his own recognizance. The case is currently under review by the Washington County Attorney’s Office.
This report is based on statements from court records, police, or other responding parties and may not include the full scope of the findings. A person arrested or charged is presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law or until determined otherwise by a trier of fact.
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