JONESBORO, Ark. – A bizarre police report concluded with the arrest of a Jonesboro woman for allegedly packing $150 in meat into her purse, hitting a grocery employee in the face, and making a getaway.
The Independence Day incident began at 2:40 p.m., the JPD incident report details. Officer Benjamin Witherspoon arrived at Kroger Marketplace, 1525 South Caraway Road in Jonesboro, over a call about a shoplifter. The store manager told the officer a white female, later identified as Angela Ruth Watson, 43, of Jonesboro, had come into the store and packed $150 in meat into her purse before leaving.
Once in the parking lot, the manager confronted Watson, who then was said have grabbed her purse and ran back into the store – and into the woman’s bathroom. Several employees followed her and found she was trying to hide the stolen merchandise. It wasn’t clear in the report if she tried to conceal it on her person or in the bathroom in an effort to ditch the stolen goods. Whatever her plan, she realized she was being watched and left again.
The manager followed her back to her car and this time, said she threw the meat into the backseat and then smacked him in the face with her hand. She also was said to have hit him with her car door before driving off.
Police began an investigation into the identity of the suspect but unlike in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Watson was identified as the suspect.
After tracking her down to a house, police found a car pulling away and stopped it. Watson was arrested and positively identified by the store manager. She also had a failure to appear warrant, police reported.
She was taken to Craighead County Detention Center on a felony robbery accusation.
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