Lourdes Rodriguez (Palm Beach County Jail).
A Florida woman was recently arrested for being a member of a lucrative retail theft ring that targeted a series of businesses, including Ulta, CVS, Walgreens, and liquor stores in the Sunshine State, authorities claim.
Lourdes Rodriguez, 20, stands accused of two counts each of organized retail theft and grand theft, according to a press release issued by the Florida Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
The defendant was arrested this week and is said to be the third member of a stealing operation that caused losses in excess of $100,000 to over four dozen different Florida businesses.
The defendant herself allegedly committed more than a dozen thefts across Brevard, Martin, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Seminole counties, authorities say. Her alleged thefts totaled some $15,000.
“She would hide them on her person, or in her bag, and she would flee the store,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said in comments reported by West Palm Beach-based CBS affiliate WPEC.
Martin County was the original site of the investigation into Lourdes, authorities say, but eventually that inquiry led law enforcement to see what is allegedly a much bigger pool of ill-gotten retail goods.
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“Once that arrest was made, authorities collectively realized she was hitting store after store,” the sheriff continued. “Now Ms. Rodriguez is facing enhanced penalties for serial shoplifting.”
The defendant is allegedly the third person arrested in the theft ring.
“Rodriguez would enter the stores, conceal merchandise in either a bag the defendant brought in with her or one stolen from the business, and walk out with the stolen items,” according to the press release.
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The defendant allegedly focused much of her shoplifting on skin care items, oral hygiene products, and beauty supplies, according to a field case report obtained by WPEC.
She allegedly stole from multiple different Walgreens – but sometimes the same one, with a gap of two days between incidents, authorities allege.
Lourdes also has a series of failure to appear charges, according to Palm Beach County Jail records.
She was originally arrested in October.
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The public court docket in Martin County shows a person identified as “Lourdes Rodriguez,” charged with several misdemeanor cases of petit theft.
The charges announced by the state this week, however, include felony allegations. If sentenced as charged, the felony convictions in the case could carry sentences of up to five years in prison.
“Working with our law enforcement partners and our Florida Organized Retail Crime Exchange Task Force, we dismantled a massive organized retail theft ring with a third arrest this week,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement. “Criminal organizations be warned – in Florida, we have the tools and talent to investigate and take down your criminal enterprise, and you will pay for your crimes.”
