Deputies responding to a report of a shoplifter at a Family Dollar store found the suspect had a few things in their backpack that weren’t carried at the store.
Witnesses said the woman walked in with a backpack and two totes and spent about 30 minutes shopping while filling up a basket. She then asked to use the bathroom of the Family Dollar Store in Proctorville around 1 p.m.
After the woman used the bathroom, employees noticed the basket was gone and found multiple open packages of merchandise. She left the store before officers from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office arrived, but they caught up with her on CR 411.
Officers found several items stolen from the store in the backpack, including a large number of batteries, Insta Switches, flashlights, and handheld lights.
While booking her into the jail, officers also found three scales, meth and marijuana pipes, a box cutter with a burnt tip, a grinder, calculator, rolling papers, baggies, a small straw, and a pack of cigarettes with an empty bottom.
Officers charged Emily Smith with theft and possession of drug paraphernalia.
