Florida middle school assistant principal arrested in shoplifting incident www.privateofficer.com

 

VolusiaCounty Fla July 26 2012 An assistant principal at a Florida middle school was caught shoplifting nearly $500-worth of clothes and lingerie from a store on Friday.

As police took Dianne Atkinson to jail, she admitted that it was not her first time doing so and said that she needed ‘help’.

She is a long-time employee of the Volusia County school district and currently earns $69,493 per year in her position as assistant principal.

According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Mrs Atkinson, 53, has no criminal history, but confessed that she had stolen items from the department store Bealls before without being caught.

Grainy surveillance footage shows Mrs Atkinson entering the Orange City store with an empty plastic bag.

She proceeds to browsing through the racks while the clothes she examines suddenly come off their hangers and her bag gets increasingly full.

Local station WFTV reports that Mrs Atkinson then changed into one of the store’s new bras and leaves before being stopped by a department store loss prevention officer.

Police were called to the scene and Mrs Atkinson was taken to jail on retail theft charges.

The police report notes that she was embarrassed and said that she had a problem. She has since returned the stolen merchandise, which added up to $469.

School administrators at Galaxy Middle School have declined to comment and would not say what, if any, punishment she would face, but they did say that they are doing their own investigation.

Her husband, John, is also a local school principal and he works at Pine Ridge High School.