Columbia County authorities have arrested a woman for allegedly taking a phone and wallet that a Walmart customer mistakenly left Tuesday at a self-checkout register in Grovetown.
And the woman lists Walmart as her employer!
Seriah Robinson, 23, of Augusta, was charged Friday with theft of found or mislaid property. She quickly made a $1,100 bond and was released. She has no previous criminal record in the CSRA.
Posts of the woman taking the items went viral with hundreds of shares and people ridiculing the suspect.
“She was tested and failed,” Tony Wilson wrote.
Linda Pilcher noted the woman’s Christian-themed T-Shirt: “Wearing a shirt with a Cross yet going against ‘Thou Shall Not Steal.’ Hypocrisy!”
For her part, Robinson went on social media to apologize, saying, “Not my proudest moment but definitely a learning experience. My deepest apologies to the young man whose wallet I took it wasn’t right regardless of the circumstances. I am human and I do make mistakes. But I am grateful that God’s grace and mercy is everlasting. And He’s going to get the glory at the end of the day from my life.”
What are you supposed to do when you find property that isn’t yours? Local resident Denise Atkinson recounted what she did in a similar situation when she found a customer’s wallet.
“(I) went to customer service, had them call him over the intercom and waited there till he showed up just to make sure he got his wallet back!” she wrote.
Sheriff’s Maj. Steve Morris addressed the issue a decade ago when a local public defender was arrested for holding onto a $10,500 diamond ring she found in the parking lot of the Grovetown Cracker Barrel.
“When someone finds property that doesn’t belong to them, … then they have to, by law, take reasonable measures to restore that property to its owner,” Maj. Morris said.
Georgia Law O.C.G.A. §16-8-6 reads as follows: “A person commits the offense of theft of lost or mislaid property when he comes into control of property that he knows or learns to have been lost or mislaid and appropriates the property to his own use without first taking reasonable measures to restore the property to the owner.”
In this week’s Grovetown case, a 39-year-old man said he placed his phone and wallet on the register while bagging up his items on Tuesday evening. He placed his items in the shopping cart and exited the store.
“After placing his items in his vehicle, he realized he left his phone and wallet in the store,” a report says. “Upon returning to the store to get his items, he discovered they were gone. He checked with the clerk at customer service to see if anyone had turned them in. They had not.”
