Close to the end of watch, a shoplifting call came out. Bender directed her to buy it, meaning to tell the dispatcher they’d handle the shoplifter.
“We don’t get too many 484 calls anymore,” he said, referring to the penal Code for theft. “The suspect must have taken merchandise worth more than nine hundred fifty dollars.”
When they got to the department store, Bender showed Josie where the security office was located. After they’d knocked on the fortified door, it was opened by one of the loss prevention officers.
“Bender! Haven’t seen you in a long time.” The civilian theft prevention employee eyed Josie.
“Ah, some fresh blood to the force, huh?” He stuck his hand out. “Dennis Vinson.”
She gave his hand a quick shake. “Josie Price.”
Bender adjusted his Sam Browne gun-belt. “Where’s our suspect? And what in the hell did she take that you’re calling us?”
Vinson nodded toward his desk. Two pairs of designer heels sat on top. “She shucked her tennis shoes and put the black pair on and then shoved the red ones into her purse.”
Bender shook his head. “What an idiot. If she’d stolen one pair today, and then came back tomorrow to take the second pair, we couldn’t touch her. Of course, this is all a waste of time. The DA won’t file on her.”
Vinson shrugged, then motioned to an office behind him. “She’s in there with my partner.”
Bender looked at Josie. “Get an FI and run her for warrants. Do you remember how to do a Code 10 over the air?”
She nodded, then stepped into the other room where a female appearing to be about forty-five years old sat handcuffed to a chair, and another female in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt was scrolling through her phone.
The gal with the device slipped it into her pocket as soon as Josie entered. “Hi. I’m Mikayla with loss prevention. The suspect’s name is Jennifer. Here’s her ID,” she said, handing her a driver’s license. “She hasn’t been any problem. Do you need me to stand by?”
Josie shook her head. “No, I’ll be okay.”
The loss prevention officer went out to chat with Bender and Vinson—who were talking football.
Josie fought to keep surprise from her face when she looked at the suspect. The woman’s hair style and color were trendy. Her clothes appeared classic and expensive, and her jewelry upscale. The woman’s head hung low.
“Hi, I’m Officer Price. I need to get some information from you.” Five minutes later, Josie had run the suspect for warrants. She didn’t have any.
Vinson had printed out his report detailing his observations of the woman putting on one pair of shoes, then secreting a second pair in her purse, then walking out of the store without paying.
Bender had reviewed Vinson’s paperwork and showed Josie the key elements of the crime that needed to be documented. “Okay, let’s get going. If it’s not busy, we might be able to get a night watch unit to take her to Van Nuys jail and book her.”
Prior to removing their arrestee from the loss prevention office, Josie searched her. She worried that Vinson and his partner would think she was implying they hadn’t done a thorough search when they’d arrested the suspect.
But the pair didn’t even pay attention while she conducted her search.
Bender trailed behind Josie as she walked their arrestee through the department store out to their patrol vehicle.
She pushed aside any sympathy she had for Jennifer, who continued to hang her head as they walked past expensive perfumes and overpriced jeans. Judgmental shoppers looked at the woman in handcuffs, then averted their eyes.
They’d parked their unit in the fire lane, close to the store’s door. The prohibited parking location was deemed necessary to reduce the chances of their arrestee trying to flee walking out of the store to the police black and white. The vehicle’s presence also served as a warning to other thieves shoplifters didn’t always get away.
“Watch your head,” Josie said as she assisted Jennifer to sit in the molded fiberglass rear seat of their vehicle.
Once their prisoner settled into her seat, Josie reached across to secure Jennifer with a seatbelt.
Back in the front passenger seat, she saw Bender typing a message on the computer to the watch commander asking if a PM watch unit could transport and book their shoplifter so they wouldn’t have to work overtime.
Once he was done typing, she asked Bender if she could talk to their arrestee.
“Sure. As long as you don’t make promises to her about what the outcome of this arrest might entail.”
The computer lit up with a response to her partner’s email.
Bender read the reply, sighed, and made a face. Then he put the car in gear.
As they drove to the Van Nuys jail, Josie twisted in the front passenger seat and opened the small plexiglass window that was part of the partition that separated the front seat from the back seat.
“Jennifer,” she said. “Why did you steal the shoes? You don’t look like you’re down on your luck and couldn’t afford to pay for them.”
“What the hell do you know about my finances? My husband and I have two kids in college, a big mortgage, and expensive car payments.” Tears began to roll down her cheeks.
“I think my husband is having an affair with his bookkeeper. He has a heating and air business. I wanted the red heels to go with a sexy outfit that I bought to remind him why he married me.”
Josie’s cheeks grew warm. She made a mental note to never pry into a suspect’s life any more than was necessary. She didn’t know what to say to the woman.
Bender wasn’t quite as tongue-tied. “So, the bookkeeper at your husband’s business…is she hot?”