Woman caught stealing child's iPod after seen in surveillance video

The Polk County Sheriff's Office says that on January 3rd, deputies arrested 26-year-old Nancy Carrizal of Lakeland and charged her with petit theft and tampering with evidence after she was positively identified as the suspect seen in a video stealing a young boy's iPod from a checkout counter at Publix. 

Deputies say that the theft was reported on December 18th. They say the boy's father told deputies that this son and wife went to Publix on Shepherd Road in Lakeland during the evening hours of December 17th. He said that his son put his iPod, valued at $250, on the counter while his mother was checking out. The boy walked over to the scales to weigh himself and accidentally left the iPod behind. When he returned, the iPod was gone. 

The sheriff's office said that the boy asked the woman standing in line behind him if he had saw the iPod anywhere. She answered no. The father also reportedly called Publix, who told them that nobody had returned the iPod. So, that's when the father decided to contact the Polk County Sheriff's Office to report the theft. 

Detectives say they reviewed the store's surveillance videos, which showed the customer who was in line behind the boy -- the same one he had spoke to about it being missing -- grab the iPod and take it. 

With the help of the public, detectives say they were able to contact Carrizal and she confirmed she was the person in the video and arranged to meet detectives to return the iPod. She reportedly told detectives that she made a mistake and thought it was her phone. She said the iPod was dead and sitting in her junk drawer, that she'd been sick, and that she was planning on contacting law enforcement after the holidays and when she felt better.

When the Polk County Sheriff's Office retrieved the iPod from her, detectives presented it to the victim, who turned it on and discovered that all of the iPod's contents had been erased and it had been reset to its original factory settings on or around December 18th.

Sheriff Grady Judd commented on the crime, saying that "this Grinch was caught red-handed stealing a child's property one week before Christmas. When confronted about it, she lied. She had an opportunity to return it to him right after she took it, when he asked her if she saw it. Now she's facing two criminal charges. Hopefully she's learned her lesson."