Two suspected serial shoplifters in Bethel Park were caught after one of them fell asleep in the car alongside $1,300 in stolen merchandise, authorities said.
Police responded Feb. 9 to the parking lot of the Bethel Park Home Depot for a report of a woman passed out in a car, authorities said. A Home Depot employee told police the woman had with her a man that was spotted shoplifting merchandise and dumping it into the car.
Officers pounded on the window of the Toyota 4Runner and still could not wake the woman inside, later identified as 40-year-old Jessica Clibbens, according to the criminal complaint. They also spotted “what appeared to be potentially stolen merchandise,” some of which was covered with a blanket.
Clibbens woke when an officer opened the door of the unlocked car, according to the complaint. She identified the man she was with as her boyfriend, Adam Foltz, 42. While this was going on, police said, he was inside Home Depot, allegedly trying to pilfer more merchandise.
Inside the store, an officer approached Foltz, who refused to comply with orders and had to be “forcibly controlled,” according to the complaint.
Clibbens told police she’d been driving Foltz around to various stores “because they are in need of money to feed the kids and pay their bills,” police wrote.
In total, police said, the pair had more than $1,300 worth of stolen goods from Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target and Walmart. They said Foltz had on him razors, knives, magnets and other tools for removing tags and security devices.
Both are charged with theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy and possession of an instrument of crime, court records show. Foltz is also charged with possession of suspected heroin.
