A shift leader at an Ocala Hardee’s fast-food restaurant was arrested last week and charged with retail petit theft.
A loss prevention officer at the Bealls department store at 4901 E State Road 40 told an Ocala Police officer on Wednesday night that he had followed 30-year-old Amber Leigh Conway into the parking lot and she had attempted to walk away from him after he identified himself. He said she gave him back the merchandise she allegedly had taken from the store and “told him to stop following her or she was going to shoot him and she was reaching into her purse,” an Ocala Police report states.
The loss prevention officer said he continued to follow Conway until an Ocala Police detective stopped her in the 4500 block of NE 21st Street. He said that Conway didn’t have any weapons in her purse. And the detective said that Conway admitted to stealing clothes from the Bealls store and fleeing the scene, the report says.
Conway was transported back to the Bealls store, where the loss prevention officer said she had allegedly been taking children’s clothing. He said she had walked into the store with a flat purse and she had concealed the clothing in the handbag, the report says.
An officer watched surveillance video at the store and reported seeing Conway “select merchandise, duck down under the clothes rack, and come back up without the merchandise.” She then passed up all of the cash registers and left the store without making any attempts to pay for the items, which were valued at $160, the report says.
Conway, who lives at 542 NE 23rd Cir., Apt. 1, in Ocala, was then transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with retail petit theft. The shift leader at the Hardee’s restaurant on N Pine Avenue was being held with no bond and is due to appear in court on June 17 at 8 a.m. to answer to the charge.