Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ashley Nicole Edge, 32, was arrested yesterday and charged with stealing a wallet from a customer at the Tower Square Publix on January 21.

At about 1:43 p.m. on January 21, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to the Publix, where the victim said she had been kneeling to get something from a shelf when a woman snatched the wallet out of her back pants pocket. The victim said she chased the robber as she ran out of the store but lost her when she rode away on a bike.

The deputy viewed store surveillance video and saw a woman running out of the store with something white in her hand; the victim’s wallet was white. The wallet contained $50 in cash and several gift cards with over $600 on them, along with the victim’s driver’s license, social security card, and bank card.

Another deputy recognized Edge in the surveillance video, and a deputy went to her residence; she was not there, but an individual who answered the door described her haircut and what she was wearing, and both matched the woman seen on the store surveillance video.

A deputy made contact with Edge yesterday while investigating a separate issue and detained her. Post Miranda, Edge reportedly confessed to taking the wallet because she needed money for alcohol. She told the deputy that she took the cash and hid the wallet behind a dumpster; the wallet was found and returned to the victim, with only the cash missing.

Edge has been charged with robbery by sudden snatching. She has no criminal convictions but completed a deferred prosecution agreement for drug possession in 2014; she was arrested in 2021 for domestic battery, but the charge was later dropped. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $40,000 but authorized a release on her own recognizance if Edge is accepted into the Drug Court program

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.