Woman charged with robbery in Winn-Dixie lot

By JOEL ANDERSON, Times Staff Writer
Published January 12, 2008

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SPRING HILL - A 28-year-old Spring Hill woman faces a charge of robbery with a weapon after being accused of taking $58 from a woman in the parking lot of a Winn-Dixie grocery store.

Crystal Schaffer was arrested late Thursday and taken to the Hernando County Jail. She remained in jail Friday on $20,000 bail.

At about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Schaffer allegedly approached a woman who had finished shopping at the Winn-Dixie on Spring Hill Drive. The woman told authorities that Schaffer first asked for a ride but had a butcher knife on the top of her purse.

Schaffer then told the woman she wanted money, took $58 and went into the grocery store to buy cigarettes, according to the arrest report.

Schaffer told deputies she had been arguing with her boyfriend in a car at the intersection of Spring Hill Drive and Mariner Boulevard. Schaffer said she then got out of the vehicle, walked to the Winn-Dixie and found the knife in a drainage ditch.

Officials say she later admitted to entering the woman's car with a knife and stealing the money. Schaffer was arrested in front of the store.