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Crime & Safety

Woman Faces Fifth Retail Theft Charge, Police Say

A Monroe County woman has been charged with trying to steal about $276 in food and clothes from the Lower Nazareth Walmart.

A Monroe County woman has been charged with trying to steal about $276 in items from the Lower Nazareth Walmart in what police say is her fifth retail theft offense in a criminal history going back to 1981.

Court records say Stefanie Robin Gresiak, 49, tried to leave the Walmart Saturday afternoon with clothes and food items concealed in Walmart shopping bags.

Gresiak was still in the store at the Northampton Crossings shopping center when Colonial Regional Officer Gary Young arrived around 4:30 p.m., the records say.

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”The female stated that she was going to jail tonight and that she was sorry,” Young writes in a criminal complaint against Gresiak.

A store loss-prevention official told Young he first saw Gresiak selecting clothes and concealing them in her purse. He followed her and saw her select other items and put them into Walmart bags.

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The official later saw her remove clothes from her purse and put them in the bags, the complaint says. She also selected food items and concealed these as well, it says.

The total value of the items she allegedly took was $275.97. The official requested restitution is in the amount of $34.19 for food items that can’t be restocked, the complaint says.

Gresiak, of 1993 Kunkletown Road, Ross Township, was charged with retail theft and receiving stolen property. Both charges rise to a level-three felony because of the previous retail theft offenses.

The complaint says the previous offenses were on April 9, 1981, Dec. 11, 2007, March 20, 2012 and March 26, 2012.

Online court records say the 2007 incident occurred in Palmer Township and the March 26, 2012 incident occurred in Lower Nazareth Township. It could not be determined where the other incidents occurred.

However, the online records list one more alleged offense – Jan. 3, 2008 in Palmer.

In Saturday’s case, Gresiak was arraigned around 9 p.m. by on duty District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $15,000 bail.

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