Girl arrested for shoplifting with stepfather

A 14-year-old South Kitsap girl was arrested last week after she and her stepfather reportedly went to a local grocery store to steal food, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the report, the incident began shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, when a security officer at the Safeway on Bethel Road saw a teen-aged girl leaving the store with a basket full of groceries without paying for them.

The employee said when he approached her outside and identified himself, two men walked up, one identifying himself as the girl’s father. When the employee began to pull the girl back into the store, the man who said he was her father pulled out a knife, but then left with the other man when the employee called for others inside the store to call 911.

When a deputy responded and questioned the girl, she said that she, her step-father and his friend all planned to go to the store and steal some food, since they were out of money and her mother did not get paid until the end of the month.

She said her step-father had told her to steal the items, and that her mother was not aware of their plan. She said this was the first time they had done anything like that, and that they planned on paying back the store for the items they took, which the deputy noted totaled $65.

The girl was then arrested and booked into the Kitsap County Juvenile Detention Center for first-degree robbery.

The deputy later contacted the girl’s step-father, who said he did not know she was shoplifting. He said the security officer had startled him because he did not identify himself, and that he had never opened the knife, but was only holding it in his hand out of nervousness.

He said he left the scene because every time he talks to the police he ends up getting arrested. He added that his step-daughter was shoplifting, so she should get arrested, but that he didn’t do anything.

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