A South Carolina woman used her two young daughters to steal prom and pageant dresses from a boutique in Buford, Gwinnett County police said.
Elizabeth Pack, 37, was booked into the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center in South Carolina on Friday on a fugitive warrant linked to the dress and jewelry theft charges from the Girli Girl boutique in downtown Buford, police said.
Pack used her daughters, ages 8 and 14, to distract employees while Pack stole as much as $5,000 in merchandise from the boutique, according to a police report.
Girli Girl owner Tracy Hurd said Pack visited her dress shop on June 6 and again on June 8. That's when she discovered that merchandise was missing.
Hurd and Gwinnett police said surveillance video showed Pack stealing dresses and jewelry while the daughters distracted employees and kept them occupied. Hurd said Pack and her daughters, who participate in kiddie pageants, had made frequent visits to her shop in the past when they were in town getting photos taken at a studio next door.
Officials allege that Pack removed the dresses from hangers and rolled them up and placed them into what Hurd called an “oversized purse.”
At one point, Hurd said the video surveillance showed that Pack was almost caught when a dress fell to the bottom of a hanging bag. Pack’s daughter noticed, and quickly asked the boutique employee to show her something upstairs, while her mother stole the dress, Hurd said.
"What kind of mother trains her 8-year-old that this is OK?" asked Hurd. “The sad part is she’s created two more criminals.”
Gwinnett County arrest warrants charge Pack with two counts apiece of theft by shoplifting and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
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