Police accuse four people of stealing more than $181,000 worth of baby formula
Four people have been arrested and charged with stealing more than $181,000 worth of baby formula from a Conewago Township, York County Pennsylvania warehouse over a two-year span beginning in 2016, according to a criminal complaint. Three of the suspects are from Lancaster; the fourth is from York County, court documents say. Two of the suspects were workers at the ES3 warehouse, located on the 4800 block of Susquehanna Trail. A total of 1,892 cases of baby formula were taken. The total value of the stolen items was $181,832.
Charged in the thefts were Brayonna Marsae Hargrove, 22, Jennifer Lynn Bagshaw, 42, and Pierre Deshawn Bagshaw, 46, all of Lancaster, and Terrance Banks, 41, of Manchester Township. They are charged with being part of a corrupt organization, conspiracy to commit theft, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. Police began investigating the thefts in April, when an employee at the warehouse reported the attempted theft of a large amount of baby formula.
The worker told police that around 4:25 a.m. on April 10, he heard a dragging sound coming from outside the warehouse. When he went to investigate, the worker said, he saw an African American man of stocky build coming from around a corner where the warehouse’s propane tanks were stored. The worker located three 55-gallon drums filled with cases of baby formula in the area. Other employees told supervisors at the warehouse they believed Pierre Bagshaw and Banks, who were employed at the warehouse, were involved in the thefts.
The warehouse supervisors told police that the thefts of baby formula dated back to September 2016, but until the April 2018 incident, they had no names of persons who could be involved. Police interviewed Pierre Bagshaw and Banks, and confiscated Bagshaw’s cell phone. A forensic investigation of the phone revealed text messages that implicated Bagshaw’s wife, Jennifer, Hargrove, and Banks in the theft and sale of the formula, police say. Charges against the suspects were filed on June 26, according to the criminal complaint. Jennifer Bagshaw was arraigned on July 11 and released on $50,000 bail, according to court documents. Pierre Bagshaw, Banks, and Hargrove are still awaiting arraignment. [Source: Fox43 News]
Shoplifter armed with knife arrested
An armed shoplifter was arrested Sunday afternoon in southeast Portland, Oregon, according to police. Officers responded to the report of a shoplifter with a knife in the 1000 block of Southeast Belmont Street at 3:48 p.m. Officers arrived to the scene and arrested the suspect, identified as 49-year-old Christopher A. Catello. Catello was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of theft in the third degree and delivery of a controlled substance – methamphetamine. [Source: Fox12 Oregon]
Car theft suspect captured in retailer’s surveillance images
The Las Cruces Police Department is asking for the public’s help finding a suspect seen walking through a J.C. Penney store just before the vehicle was stolen. A white 2015 Kia Optima was stolen from the parking lot near the J.C. Penny Store in the Mesilla Valley Mall at 700 Telshor Blvd. Surveillance video shows the young man was wearing a dark, sleeveless shirt and dark shorts. Anyone who recognizes the suspect, or has any information regarding the crime or current location of the vehicle, please call Las Cruces Crime Stoppers at 800.222.8477 (TIPS). The white 2015 Kia Optima has New Mexico license plate 194RNX. Las Cruces Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $1000 for information that leads to the identification of the suspect. Tips remain completely anonymous. [Source: KVIA7 News]
Mother charged with unlawful neglect for shoplifting with kids while high
A Murrells Inlet woman in South Carolina is facing several charges after police say she was trying to shoplift a cart full of stuff from the Garden City Walmart while high and with her two children. Monique Felicia Mantell, 35, was arrested on July 8 after a call from the loss prevention associate, according to a police report. The LP associate says Mantell confessed to stealing the merchandise that was in her shopping cart, worth a total of $317. When he ran her identity, it came back with an outstanding warrant and she was arrested, the report states.
While searching her, the officer found a green plastic bag containing four wax paper slips with a brown powder substance believe to be heroin. The officer questioned her and she reportedly said it was heroin and she had just bought it and “snorted two bumps” before leaving to go to the store. The two children who were with her were 11 and 3, according to the report. The report does not say who took custody of the children after Mantell was arrested. She was charged with shoplifting, larceny, two counts of unlawful neglect of a child, and drug possession. She was released on bond as of July 10. [Source: ABC4 News]
C-Store robber gets nine years
A Morristown Tennessee, man whose tri-color New York cap identified him as a suspect in an armed robbery of the South Cumberland Street Shell station was sentenced to nine years in state prison on Friday after he pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, according to court documents. Charles Douglas Bailey, 33, will have to serve 85 percent of the sentence before he’s eligible for parole. Bailey fled the convenience store with $390. That means Bailey will have to serve approximately one month for every $4.20 he pocketed.
After seeing the widely circulated surveillance photograph of Bailey robbing the store, at least three people identified Bailey as the man beneath the cap, according to the Morristown Police Department. The nine-year sentence for armed robbery will run consecutively to what remains of an eight-year sentence imposed in 2016 for selling oxycodone, according to court records. Bailey will have to serve 30 percent of that sentence before he begins flattening the other sentence. Crystal meth, as usual, was prominent in Friday’s plea day. Criminal Court Judge John F. Dugger sentenced Jason Keith Shockley, 40, to eight years in state prison after Shockley pleaded guilty to delivery of meth. Dugger fined Shockley $2,000.Department. [Source: Citizen Tribune]
Chicago’s last Sears closes for good
Mike Lord remembers treating the Sears at Six Corners as a neighborhood hangout when he was a kid. When his parents pushed to turn off the TV and get outside, he would sneak over to the store’s TV department to watch Cubs games. “It was my babysitter when I couldn’t get friends together to play ball,” said Lord, 59, who was shopping at the store Friday and still lives a few blocks away.
The Six Corners store, on the edge of Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood, will shut its doors for the last time Sunday, two months shy of its 80th anniversary. The closure is part of Sears’ effort to turn around its business after years of losses and declining sales, but when the store rings up its final sale, the city will lose one more link to a hometown company that used to be the world’s largest retailer.
Plans to redevelop the site already have been announced, but neighbors have seen a redevelopment across the street drag on. They’re waiting to see whether Six Corners, at the intersection of Milwaukee and Cicero avenues and Irving Park Road, can regain its status as a bustling retail district. At Sears on Friday, ground-floor apparel racks were liberally sprinkled with neon-bright signs touting discounts as steep as 80 percent off. The walls were bare, and the store’s upper and lower levels appeared to have about as much space devoted to selling store fixtures and furniture as merchandise.
Despite the warm memories for shoppers like Lord, the April announcement that the store would close wasn’t a shock for many in the neighborhood. On Friday, more than one visitor looking for going-out-of-business deals or simply paying a final visit to the store said they were surprised it remained open as long as it had. “It’s too bad, but what are you going to do?” said Ken Little, 63, who grew up in the neighborhood and fondly recalls the store’s candy department.
The Six Corners store, which opened in 1938 in a $1 million building designed by Chicago architecture firm Nimmons, Carr & Wright, is one of the 529 Sears stores that were in operation nationwide as of May 5. Hoffman Estates-based parent company Sears Holdings Corp. still has one Kmart in Chicago and a handful of Sears stores in the suburbs. Since May, Sears Holdings has announced plans to close 78 more stores after another quarter of losses and slowing sales. The company laid off 200 corporate employees last month, including 150 in Hoffman Estates, following a round of 220 job cuts earlier this year. [Source: Chicago Tribune]