Woman shoplifts $1K in items from Walmart as a ‘game’: Police

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — An accused shoplifter from Walmart left with a shiny new pair of handcuffs, rather than the more than $1,000 worth of items she allegedly stole.

On Monday, the Flager County Sheriff’s Office responded to a Palm Coast Walmart at 6:26 p.m. after someone reported a shoplifter.

The person told responding officials the woman, identified as 30-year-old Amber McCann, of Sanford, bypassed the checkout lanes, refused to show employees a receipt for the cart full of items and proceeded to load the items into a car before fleeing on foot, when she noticed someone was watching her.

Deputies arrived and located the vehicle and stolen items in the back seat. Although McCann admitted to carrying a cart full of stolen merchandise, she claimed it was loaded into a random car she found, police said.

McCann told police she stole the items because she was playing a game called “21,” where someone grabs as much as they can from a store and walks out without paying while trying not to get caught.

While being interrogated by deputies, McCann accidentally revealed the vehicle was her boyfriend’s rental car, to which deputies then called her out for knowing the car the stolen items were in, police said.

“Yeah I know, I lied to you,” the woman said.

The deputy later said she needed to figure out how much money worth of merchandise the woman stole, to which she replied:

“Probably a lot, I stole ’cause I took a lot of (expletive),” the woman said. “I’m pretty sure I’m gonna go to jail.”

In total, McCann stole $1,030 worth of items from the store, the sheriff’s office said.

Upon their search of all of the stolen items, deputies discovered a partially burnt marijuana cigarette, along with baggies containing marijuana. A digital scale, hashish, a glass pipe with burnt residue, four plastic baggies of methamphetamine weighing 62 grams, and another baggie of alprazolam were found in the trunk.

McCann was arrested on suspicion shoplifting with grand theft of $750-$5,000, trafficking meth, and the possession of marijuana under 20 grams, hashish, drug paraphernalia, and alprazolam.

“If she really thought she was playing a shoplifting game, she lost to our deputies and observant citizens,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Yet again, a ‘see something, say something’ caller directly contributed to the arrest of a thief and drug trafficker. Another out-of-town resident ‘just stealing material things’ from a big box store learned the hard way we enforce the laws in Flagler County and it’s illegal to steal. She may have skipped the checkout lane at Walmart, but she went through the express check-in at the Green Roof Inn with a free set of designer bracelets—aka handcuffs.”

McCann is being held on a $34,000 bond at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility.