Couple faces theft, trespass charges

BOARDMAN — A Florida couple was arrested and charged with thefts at two township stores on the same day.

Lisa Ann Carroll, 19, of Delano, Fla., was charged with theft and possession of criminal tools stemming from an incident at Wal-Mart, Doral Drive, and with theft at Kohl’s in the Shops at Boardman Park.

Both occurred Tuesday afternoon.

Michael David Lawrence, 33, also of Delano, Fla., was charged with theft and criminal trespass at Wal-Mart and theft at Kohl’s. A police report says that Lawrence had earlier been instructed by the store not to return to any Wal-Mart locations.

Lawrence also had a felony warrant from Pennsylvania charging him with receiving stolen property.

What happened

A police report says that a Wal-Mart security officer said the pair came into the store about 5 p.m. and selected several light bulbs from the shelf and then returned them to the store’s customer service desk as if they had bought them.

They received a gift card in exchange and used it to buy a prepaid cell phone. Then they selected a DVD player from the store and exchanged the phone for the DVD player.

Then they left the store with both the phone and DVD player and the security officer stopped them.

When police arrived, an officer recognized the couple from a surveillance video taken at Kohl’s that showed them leaving the store without paying for $240 in men’s clothing.

Both were housed in the Mahoning County Jail and are set to appear today in Mahoning County Court.