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Florida woman arrested after swapping price tags in Target shoplifting scheme: deputies

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Updated  August 13, 2024 12:51pm EDT
Palm Coast
FOX 35 Orlando

PALM COAST, Fla. - A Florida woman was taken to jail after she stole nearly $300 worth of items from a Target store last week, according to deputies.

Carla Nishikura, 39, of Bunnell, was arrested on charges of shoplifting, scheme to defraud and violation of probation, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

Shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, deputies responded to a shoplifting incident at a Target store in Palm Coast. 

They spoke with the store's loss prevention officer, who reported seeing a woman, later identified as Nishikura, removing price tags from clothing items and replacing them with cheaper tags.

She also allegedly took a price tag from a pencil box and placed it over a Lego set, along with adding other items to her cart.

Booking photo of Carla Nishikura via Flagler County Sheriff's Office

Authorities said she then proceeded to the self-checkout, where she scanned only five of the 12 items in her cart. The scanned items totaled $19.50, but officials stated the correct total should have been $268.48. Deputies reported that she left the store without paying for the other seven items.

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The loss prevention officer stopped her and took her into the office until law enforcement arrived.

 "She apparently likes 5-finger discounts and doesn’t want to pay for items like the rest of us must do," Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement. "We won’t allow shoplifting in Flagler County, so hopefully she is learning her lesson while spending time in the Green Roof Inn."

Deputies said the incident was not the first time she has shoplifted from Target. Nishikura was reportedly caught stealing from Target in December 2023, but the store did not pursue charges. Nishikura is currently on a 12-months probation for a shoplifting incident from September 2023.