A Dunnellon woman accused of attempting to steal items and heaving a bath bomb across a discount store was arrested on a litany of charges Monday.
When Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Dollar General store at 10244 SW 86th Circle in Ocala shortly after 10 p.m., they encountered 34-year-old Stephanie Denise Layne in the parking standing next to a white Chrysler PT Cruiser. Layne told deputies her vehicle was broken down but everything was OK, the report says, noting that they smelled alcohol on Layne’s breath and she couldn’t keep her balance.
A clerk at the store told deputies that Layne had come into the business at about 7:45 p.m. and was “acting suspicious and possibly intoxicated.” The clerk said Layne entered the store with a small clutch purse and attempted to leave with a large black handbag that had been taken off a shelf, the report says.
The clerk said Layne walked out of the store without paying for the purse and when confronted, it was discovered that handbag contained several other unpaid items, including several small containers of hair dye and a feeding nibbler.
The clerk told deputies that Layne returned to the store and when she was told to leave, she became “very irate” and threw a $5 bath bomb container, which shattered, and then knocked over a stack of shopping baskets. And she also allegedly pushed and hit the clerk several times in the face and chest area, the report says.
About two minutes later, Layne grabbed a shopping cart from outside the store and pushed it through the entrance doors, which were locked with a dead-bolt, the clerk said, adding that total amount of the theft was $27.50.
After Layne was taken into custody and placed in the backseat of a sheriff’s patrol vehicle, she started kicking the back window. And as a trainee deputy was attempting to place hobble restraints on her legs, Layne spit on his chin, the report says.
After a computer checked show that Layne was found guilty of retail theft on May 1, 2018, she was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with battery on a police officer, battery, larceny/petit theft, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct for being intoxicated in a public place.
Layne, who lives at 9085 SW 156th Ct. in Dunnellon, was released Wednesday night on $12,500 bond and is due in Marion County Court on April 16 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charges.