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By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 7, 2001
SPRING HILL -- Two Dade City women and a teenage girl face multiple charges after officials say that they tried to steal clothing from a Wal-Mart and that the teen endangered two toddlers' safety as she was trying to avoid arrest.
According to a Hernando County sheriff's report, the women had three children with them Monday while they were in the children's clothing section of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, 13300 Cortez Blvd. The women began stuffing clothing into a diaper bag and tried to leave the store without paying, the report said.
When store employees and deputies tried to stop them, the girl pushing a shopping cart with two 3-year-olds in it shoved the cart down a hill, the report said. The deputy had to run and catch the cart before it ran into a car. When a store employee tried to catch the 15-year-old, whose name the Times is withholding because of her age, she hit him, officials said.
The teen was arrested along with the two other women: Secunda Cleveland, 25, 15243 Davis Loop, No. 17 in Dade City and Candice Everett, 19, 15243 Davis Loop, No. 35 in Dade City. All three face charges of resisting a merchant and retail theft. Cleveland faces another battery charge, and the teen faces two battery charges and a child-neglect charge.