Crime & Safety
Woman Charged With Felony Theft From Maple Grove Babies R Us
A complaint filed by police says the 32-year-old woman took about 86 video games worth more than $1,000 from the Babies R Us in Maple Grove.
A Minneapolis woman was charged with one count of theft over $1,000 and one count of possession of burglary or theft tools, both felonies, in Hennepin County District Court Dec. 23.
Police say Patricia Marie St. Clair, 32, of Minneapolis took approximately 86 video games from in Maple Grove on Dec. 22 that she had not purchased.
A filed complaint by Detective Laurel Slawson of the provides the following details:
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On Dec. 22, Maple Grove police officers went to the Babies R Us store in the 12700 block of Elm Creek Boulevard in Maple Grove. They were responding to a report of a theft.
Officers met with a Babies R Us employee who provided a description of a female who had been “observed concealing merchandise in a bag and child’s car seat that she had on a shopping cart.” The employee reported the woman was “concealing video games.”
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Officers observed the woman, who was later identified as Patricia Marie St. Clair, exit the store pushing a shopping cart with a baby seat. According to the complaint, St. Clair “made no attempt to pay for any of the items she had concealed in her purse or car seat.”
When confronted by officers, according to the complaint, St. Clair “admitted that she had concealed the video games in the car seat, her purse and on her person.”
“When she pulled two blankets off the child’s car seat, which did not have a child in it, officers noted that there were so many video games packed in there that they began to spill out,” Slawson said in the complaint. Officers also reportedly found additional video games in St. Clair’s purse, and a small wire cutter and two pairs of scissors, but she denied using the tools. Officers recovered a total of about 86 video games, valued at more than $1,000.
In a post-Miranda statement to police, according to the complaint, St. Clair said she went to Babies R Us with the “intention to steal merchandise” and she stole the video games “…to give her kids a good Christmas.”
According to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Jail roster, St. Clair was released from custody Thursday, Dec. 29. A hearing is set for Feb. 2, 2012.
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