A D.C. woman charged with stealing from an Apple Store is suspected of using her children to help her shoplift from another store earlier this year.
Zandra Smith, 26, was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly stealing from the Apple Store at the Tysons Corner Center. Smith was charged with felony grand larceny and felony larceny with intent to sell. She was banned from the mall for five years, police said.
After her arrest, police reviewed a February case in which two women shoplifted with a child and a baby and believe Smith could be one of those women.
“In this particular case, she came in, she had her children with her, and that’s a concern for us because you don’t want children around that environment,” said Fairfax County Police Officer Tawny Wright.
Surveillance video shows the two women and a little girl walk into the True Religion store at Tysons Corner Center on Feb. 12. One woman is pushing a baby in a stroller.
At one point in the video, one of the women appears to check in on the infant in the stroller, but discreetly stuffs clothes into the stroller.
Then, the woman hands clothes to the young girl who appears to walk to the front of the store to test the sensor alarms.
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“She also gave the toddler clothing and [the child] would walk toward the entrance and then come back into the store to her," Wright said.
The women and children then left the store.
“Unfortunately, it happens in a lot of these shoplifting cases. The suspects will bring their kids in with them,” Wright said.
Smith has not been charged in connection to the February incident.
News4 has reached out to Smith but has not yet heard back.
