2 charged in theft of groceries
Two Amity Township women were arrested as they walked out of the Giant store in Exeter Township with shopping carts filled with grocery items totaling $851, police said Monday.
Deborah L. Menkins, 60, and Wendy L. Lamar, 45, were charged with felony counts of retail theft after the incident Saturday afternoon at the Giant at 4655 Perkiomen Ave. Both women have a history of shoplifting arrests, investigators said.
Police provided this account in the criminal complaints:
Police were called by the store manager for a theft in progress about 4:30 p.m. One week earlier, the two women were seen on store security cameras leaving the store without paying for items in their carts with a combined value of $548.
When officers arrived Saturday, the manager said the women were still in the store and employees were watching them put items in their own shopping bags and concealing them.
Police waited outside and
stopped the women when they left the store without paying.
An officer asked Menkins and Lamar for receipts and both said they didn’t have any because they didn’t pay for the items.
Menkins, who had two prior retail theft convictions, stole $263 worth of groceries, and Lamar, who had four prior retail theft convictions, stole $488 worth of groceries.
Police charged Lamar and Menkins with felony counts of retail theft for Saturday’s incident as well as the Aug. 1 incident.
Menkins of the 600 block of Lake Drive and Lamar of the 300 block of Griffith Drive remained free to await a hearing following arraignment Saturday night before District Judge Eric J. Taylor in Reading Central Central Court.