March 13, 2009 Police arrest 3 in Tennessee “shoplifting service” www.privateofficer.com
Police arrest 3 in Tennessee “shoplifting service” www.privateofficer.com
COOKEVILLE TN Mar 13 2009 — Two men and a woman allegedly operating a shoplifting “service” were arrested with a carload of loot last week, police said.
Derrick Joe Choate, 46, his wife, Camilla Shandrell Choate, 41, both of Old Qualls Road, and Garry Helms, 58, of Freehill Road, were all charged with theft of property following an investigation by Cookeville Police Detective Sgt. Yvette Demming.
It began Thursday evening when Officer Adrienne Lintz was sent to investigate a shoplifting incident at the Kohl’s store on West Jackson Street.
An official of the store had seen a man steal a pair of women’s tennis shoes and had seen him get into a vehicle which then parked in front of the Rack Room Shoes store, the officer’s report says.
At the shoe store parking lot, Lintz found the car and found that Garry Helms was the driver and Camilla Choate was in the back seat.”They said they were waiting for Camilla’s husband, Derrick Choate, who was in Rack Room Shoes,” the report says.
“I observed a pair of women’s tennis shoes in the back seat next to Mrs. Choate. She stated her husband had taken them from Kohl’s.”Also behind the car seat, the officer found “numerous shopping bags filled with merchandise,” the report says.”The bags were labeled with a black marker listing items such as men’s shirts, women’s jewelry, knives, watches, etc., as if labeled for resale.”Sgt. Jeff Johnson had joined the investigation by this time, and he went into the shoe store looking for Derrick Choate, but did not find him.
Lintz took Garry Helms and Camilla Choate to the police station, where Demming talked to them. Later, Officer Michael Herrick located Derrick Choate and brought him to the station as well.Allegedly, Camilla Choate told the officers that her husband has been running “a large shoplifting operation for about six months.”"She stated that he obtains ‘shopping lists’ from acquaintances, steals the merchandise, and then sells it at half the value for drug money. She stated that he had recently been caught stealing steaks from Food Lion for one of his ‘customers.’”
Both Helms and Camilla Choate, in separate sessions with officers, allegedly explained that Helms “drives them to stores to steal merchandise in exchange for gas money and cigarettes.”"Mrs. Choate stated that they both had warned Derrick that it was dangerous to carry the merchandise in the vehicle, but that he insisted on it just in case they encountered people who wanted the discounted items,” the report says.
Derrick Choate denied any involvement and said the items found in the car were not his, Lintz said.But surveillance video at the Kohl’s store shows him taking the shoes, she said.
Warrants taken against the three list the following stores as victims: Kohl’s, Old Navy, and Dollar General. Some of the items found could not immediately be linked to specific stores.
The three were booked into the Putnam jail.
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Tags: cookeville tn, Derrick Joe Choate, Garry Helms, loss prevention agent, loss prevention association, national association of private officers, security association, security guard, security guard association, security guard training, security officer, security officer assaociation, security police association, security training, Shandrell Choate, www.privateofficer.com
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