BATTLE CREEK (WKZO-AM) — Shoplifting may just be a misdemeanor if all the thief is taking is a pack of gum, but what a mother and daughter have been charged with in Battle Creek is something entirely different and much larger.
Investigators claim they had modified shopping bags to defeat the security tags used by stores to stop shoplifters.
When a Security officer at the Lakeview Square Mall was notified Friday evening by a shopper that a 15-year-old girl was stealing clothing, he tried to confront her in the parking lot.
Police claim the girl’s mother got in her car and ran interference for the fleeing teen by striking the security guard with her car. He was not seriously hurt.
The police responded. The security Guard was able to keep the mother from leaving.
The girl was tracked down at the nearby Target Store and arrested.
They found merchandise worth $2300 that had been taken from five stores at the Mall and a store in Kalamazoo.
They also found marijuana.
The mother and daughter team are being held for organized felony retail fraud, and the 34-year-old is also charged with felonious assault and drug possession.
The teen is being held at the Juvenile Detention Center and the mom was booked at the Calhoun County Jail.
