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Police: Shoplifter in Tarpon fled, left child behind
By RICHARD DANIELSON © St. Petersburg Times, published October 8, 2000 TARPON SPRINGS -- Confronted by Publix employees at about noon Sunday, shoplifting suspect Jennifer C. Robinson jumped into her car and raced away, leaving her 12-year-old daughter behind, Tarpon Springs police said Monday. About five minutes later, Robinson returned to pick up her daughter. But police said she sped off again before her daughter was completely in the car. Police said the girl, whose name was not released, was not injured. Officers charged Robinson, 32, of 817 Margo St. in Tarpon Springs with felony theft, child abuse and driving without a valid license. She was being held at the Pinellas County Jail on Monday in lieu of $40,250 bail. Police said Robinson works as a clerk at a hardware store. Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Tom Hill said the incident began when a Publix customer spotted Robinson putting items in her purse. The customer alerted Publix managers, who confronted Robinson as she left the store, which is at 40968 U.S. 19 N. Two managers tried to stop Robinson, but she got into her car and drove away "extremely fast," leaving her daughter behind, according to a police report. Witnesses told police that Robinson, after leaving the first time, returned to the parking lot, told her daughter to get in and pulled her into the car. As she drove off the second time, the car door was still open and her daughter was "half-in and half-out of the car," Hill said. Officers stopped Robinson's 1988 Honda at the corner of Lime Street and Walton Avenue. In the trunk, they found $275 worth of groceries, including soda and packages of meat that still were cold. Hill said it was not clear how many times Robinson might have gone into the store to get those items. After her arrest Sunday, Robinson told police that she had intended to pay for the groceries and had cash and a checkbook with her, but changed her mind at the counter. She told officers that she has a "mental problem" that makes her steal, according to a police report. She said she got scared and drove away faster than she normally would and would never do anything to put her daughter in danger. The girl was released to her grandmother after Robinson's arrest, Hill said. Sunday was not the first time that Robinson had been arrested in a suspected shoplifting incident that allegedly turned into a confrontation with store employees, according to court records and her attorney. Her attorney, John H. Trevena of Clearwater, said he was shocked at the latest charges and would request that his client be evaluated by a psychiatrist. "If the facts as alleged by the police are accurate, clearly, I believe, there must be mental health issues involved here," Trevena said. "Very serious mental health issues." In August 1999, Robinson had been put on 18 months' probation after pleading guilty to stealing more than $300 worth of groceries from an Albertsons supermarket in Palm Harbor. Trevena said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office initially assigned a homicide detective to that case because the store manager complained that Robinson had driven her car at the manager when confronted outside the store. But the only charge filed was grand theft. Robinson was charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly forging a prescription for a migraine medication in June. In August, Robinson was charged with grand theft and resisting a merchant after an incident in which she allegedly left the Countryside Mall Burdine's with $329 worth of clothing in a bag, and then refused to return to the store after Burdine's loss-prevention employees approached her and a friend in the mall. Robinson has pleaded not guilty to both sets of charges, and those cases are pending. "There is clearly a disturbing, escalating pattern that we need to address quickly from a mental health standpoint," Trevena said. - Staff writer Richard Danielson can be reached at (727) 445-4194 or danielson@sptimes.com.
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