Attempted Theft Thwarted Again by Giant Eagle Store Management

Would-be shoplifters are learning that they'll have to outrun not only local police but also store employees if they're to successfully get away with goods from the Giant Eagle in Whitehall Borough.

For at least the second time in a month, a person has left or tried to leave the Caste Village grocery store without paying for items in his or her possession, Whitehall police Chief Donald R. Dolfi said.

On Wednesday, that was 41-year-old Roberta Lynn Black, of 1030 Grand Ave. in Pittsburgh's Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood, Dolfi said. The store's manager confronted Black just outside of the store's exit doors after she tried to leave Caste property with a shopping cart full of items that she didn't pay for.

Whitehall police officers, responding to numerous reports of a woman being detained near the store, arrived at the scene shortly before 5 p.m. that day and reported finding the store's manager and "an excited" woman being "loud and boisterous" toward him, Dolfi said.

The manager explained to officers that the woman bypassed store registers and attempted to leave with the varied items before he headed her off.

Police found drug paraphernalia in Black's possession, such as spoons with brown residue on them and a tourniquet, Dolfi said, and she is being charged with possession of those items as well as attempted retail theft.

She was arrested and taken to the Allegheny County Jail.

The store's manager was involved in another altercation earlier this month with a man attempting to steal DVDs from the store.

Read through other Whitehall police items here.

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