Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Juliza Marie Santiago Rodriguez, 30, was arrested early yesterday morning and charged with engaging in a scheme to defraud after scanning price tags from lower-priced items to “buy” higher-priced items during her overnight shifts at Walmart.

At about 2:23 a.m. on June 6, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to a call from the Walmart at Butler Plaza (2900 SW 42nd Street), where the Loss Prevention Officer (LPO) said he had been watching surveillance video for an unrelated overnight issue and found that Santiago Rodriguez had been “ticket-switching” and mis-scanning merchandise at checkout registers.

The LPO said that although the store is closed at night, three cash registers stay open so the staff who stock the shelves overnight can make purchases during their breaks or when they leave. He said that when he saw Santiago Rodriguez ticket-switching, he went back and found 39 incidents in which she had allegedly used a price tag for $1.97 to cover tags for higher-priced items; she also allegedly mis-scanned many items and cleared the error codes herself on the registers. The loss came to $1,628.

Post Miranda, Santiago Rodriguez reportedly admitted mis-scanning items and said her husband is disabled and they are having financial problems.

Santiago Rodriguez has been charged with engaging in a scheme to defraud, a felony. She has no local criminal history, and Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered her released on her own recognizance.

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.