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LA PLATA ---- Charles County Sheriff Rex Coffey
promised that cops would be in local stores looking for
lawbreakers and this past week a gang with shoplifting
on their mind found out he wasn't kidding. Police report
that on Dec. 7 shortly before 7 p.m., Charles County
Sheriff’s Officer J. Timko was off-duty in Safeway
located at
40 Shining Willow Way in La Plata when he observed two women and a
teenage male acting suspiciously in the store.
As one of the women was pushing a full shopping cart,
the other woman and the teen were loading the cart with
items including meat, which the woman was attempting to
conceal beneath other items in the cart. A few minutes
later, the officer observed the woman who had been
pushing the cart leave the store. He then observed the
other woman and the teen pushing the cart near the
second exit on the other side of the store.
Believing a shoplifting was in progress, he ran to the
second exit and observed the teenager pushing the cart
in the parking lot. Knowing the food had not been paid
for, he identified himself as a police officer and
ordered the teen to stop. The teen fled but the officer
gave chase and apprehended him. Officer P. Sady, who was
also off-duty, entered the parking lot and assisted by
apprehending one of the women as Officer E. Leukhardt
and La Plata Town Police Officers M. Powers, C. Davis
and R. Bagley arrived on scene.
The officers apprehended the other woman. The women were
identified as Jennifer Dawn Whitehead, 35, of Indian
Head and Tavita Lyvonne Neal, 34, of Portsmouth, Va. The teenager was identified as a
16-year-old Indian Head resident related to one of the
women.
The stolen food was valued at nearly $400. The women and
the teenager were charged with theft valued at less than
$500. The women were released from the Charles County Detention Center on their personal recognizance and
the teenager was released to a parent. Officer Davis of
the La Plata Town Police investigated.
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