Sheriff’s deputies arrested a couple on Saturday who they believe are responsible for a string of thefts from Frederick-area stores over the last few months, according to court documents.
Horace Vincent Smith Jr., 56, and Andrena Lisa Ramos-Smith, 53, of the 700 block of Cromwell Court in Frederick, were both charged with a single count each of a felony theft scheme as well as multiple counts of theft from $100 to $1,500, according to an online search of court records Monday.
Ramos-Smith is also facing a second-degree assault charge and a related offense for threatening to pepper spray a loss prevention employee when the couple was confronted outside one of the two stores that deputies said the couple targeted Saturday.
Deputy 1st Class Christian Lucente first made contact with the couple after receiving a call from dispatchers about a theft in progress from the Target on Urbana Pike at about 1:30 PM Saturday. The deputy stopped Smith and Ramos-Smith as they were pushing a shopping cart with two laptops that Target loss prevention said the couple had just stolen from the store using a cutting tool, the documents state.
Smith and Ramos-Smith began yelling at Lucente when he detained them and asked for their identification, telling the deputy that they owned all the items in the cart and were taking them to return them to another store nearby, according to the documents.
A Target loss prevention officer arrived a short time later and told the deputy that the store had video of the couple using a cutting device found in Smith’s possession to steal the laptops. Further, the Target employee said the store had surveillance footage linking Smith and Ramos-Smith to at least three other thefts from the store between May 24 and July 6 in which the couple had stolen $2,249.94 worth of merchandise, the documents state…  The Frederick News-Post