Two Red Bull Energy Drinks cost a West Palm Beach woman her freedom Thursday afternoon.
A Marion County sheriff’s deputy was called to the Circle K at 17980 N U.S. Hwy. 441 in Orange Lake after a store manager reported that woman wearing a white shirt, blue pants and carrying a backpack with an American flag on it took two cans of Red Bull, valued at $7.38, from the store without paying for them.
The manager said that she asked the woman, later identified as 48-year-old Katherine English Hopkins, if she was going to pay for the energy drinks and she replied, “No,” as she left the store and walked north on U.S. Hwy. 441, a sheriff’s office report states.
The deputy arrived in the area of the Circle K and spotted Hopkins walking north in the 18400 block of U.S. Hwy. 441. She denied coming from the minimart, which was visible from their location. And she gave the deputy permission to search her belongings for the stolen items, the report says.
A short time later, a witness pulled up behind the deputy’s patrol vehicle and positively identified Hopkins as the woman who took the Red Bull drinks. He said he was standing in front of the cooler in the store selecting a soft drink when Hopkins walked in and took the two energy drinks. The man said he also asked her if she was going to pay for the Red Bulls and she just walked away. And he confirmed that the manager also asked Hopkins if she was going to pay for the drinks and she said, “No” as she was leaving the store.
The deputy took Hopkins into custody and went to the Circle K, where the manager positively identified her and told her not to return to the store. While they were at the store, the witness who had identified Hopkins pulled up in his vehicle and handed the deputy two empty Red Bull cans that he had found on the ground near the store. The deputy noted that the cans “were still frosted and cold to the touch as if freshly removed from a cooler.”
Hopkins, who lives at 2107 N Dixie Hwy. in West Palm Beach, refused to answer any questions and was transported to the Marion County Jail. She was charged with larceny/petit theft and held on $500 bond and is scheduled to appear in Marion County Court on Nov. 20 at 8 a.m.