Prosecutors say a mother and a daughter, who were both on release for retail thefts, were caught stealing over $1,000 worth of merchandise from a store in Gurnee.
The Gurnee Police Department was dispatched on Saturday to Walmart, 6590 Grand Avenue, for a report of a retail theft.
Loss prevention took two females into custody before officers arrived, according to Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Dino Katris.
The suspects were identified as Violeta Guzman-Garcia, 40, of Waukegan, and Mextli Y. Diaz-Guzman, 22, of Waukegan.
Katris said Guzman-Garcia and Diaz-Guzman, who are mother and daughter, both took shopping carts and loaded them with merchandise.
They went to the self-checkout and paid for $138 of goods while not scanning over $1,000 worth of merchandise, Katris said. The incident was captured on video.
Guzman-Garcia was on probation after being convicted of stealing over $1,000 in merchandise from Macy’s in Gurnee in January. Diaz-Guzman was on pre-trial release for the same incident.
Guzman-Garcia pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges in April and was ordered to have no contact with Macy’s, Katris said.
A petition to revoke her probation was filed in the case after she and her daughter were arrested for stealing $2,300 worth of merchandise from Macy’s in Vernon Hills on May 22, Katris said.
Katris said Guzman-Garcia then committed a retail theft of over $900 at Target in Gurnee on July 30.
Guzman-Garcia was released from custody after being given pre-trial conditions and then arrested again for the Gurnee Walmart retail theft this month.
“This defendant is living her best life while out on pre-trial release and court supervision. She steals whatever she wants from businesses in our community,” Katris said.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed petitions to revoke the pre-trial release of both defendants.
The petitions were granted by Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak during hearings held Tuesday afternoon.
The judge called Guzman-Garcia’s acts pre-meditated and called her a “professional thief.”
Both women remain held in the Lake County Jail and are scheduled to appear in court again next month.