Woman Caught Playing "Shoplifting Game," Discovered to be Trafficking Drugs

On Monday, March 25, a concerned citizen contacted the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office to report a shoplifter at a Palm Coast business. During the investigation, deputies determined the thief in question was also trafficking methamphetamine and other narcotics.

Deputy Stanford responded to the Walmart in Palm Coast at approximately 6:26 p.m. to investigate a suspected larceny. The reporting party stated that a white female had passed all points of sale and refused to show her receipt for a cart full of items. The reporting party also provided a vehicle description to deputies and stated that they watched her move the stolen items from her cart to the vehicle, then flee on foot once she noticed someone watching her. The store’s loss prevention officer provided a more thorough description of the suspect, and later valued the stolen items at just over $1,030.

Deputies located the vehicle matching the description in the parking lot, and observed stolen items on the back seat. Deputies then observed a female fitting the suspect’s description walking towards the store.

Deputy Stanford made contact with the woman, identified as Amber McCann, 30, of Sanford, Florida, who admitted that she carried a loaded cart full of stolen items to a car. She claimed that it was a random car she found and placed the stolen items and her purse inside when she saw law enforcement arriving. According to McCann, she was playing a game called “21” where someone grabs as much merchandise from a store and walks out without paying for them while trying not to get caught. After being secured, she changed her story and said the vehicle had not been random, but in fact was a rental car that belonged to her boyfriend.

While removing the stolen merchandise, deputies detected a clear and distinct odor of marijuana emanating from within the vehicle. During a probable cause search, they located a partially burnt marijuana cigarette in the center console. Additional baggies containing marijuana, along with a digital scale, hashish, a glass pipe with burnt residue, and empty baggies were found in the trunk of the vehicle.

They also located a locked bag which contained two plastic baggies containing a clear, crystal-like substance, which tested positive for methamphetamine, and another baggie containing two yellow tablets identified as alprazolam, which is a Schedule IV Controlled Substance. Inside a locked safe, deputies located various 1-ounce silver bars and rounds, copper bars, and a 1-gram platinum bar. In total, deputies recovered four bags containing methamphetamine, which weighed a combined 62 grams.

McCann was arrested for Shoplifting - Grand Theft ($750-$5000), Possession of Marijuana (20g or Less), Possession of Hashish, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Possession of Alprazolam, and Trafficking of Methamphetamine (28g-200g). She was transported to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and is currently being held on $34,000 bond.

“If she really thought she was playing a shoplifting game, she lost to our deputies and observant citizens,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “Yet again, a ‘see something, say something’ caller directly contributed to the arrest of a thief and drug trafficker. Another out-of-town resident ‘just stealing material things’ from a big box store learned the hard way we enforce the laws in Flagler County and it’s illegal to steal. She may have skipped the checkout lane at Walmart, but she went through the express check-in at the Green Roof Inn with a free set of designer bracelets—aka handcuffs.”