Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Eureka Sammanual Simmons, 34, was arrested yesterday and charged with grand theft and providing false information to an officer after allegedly taking $940 from an unattended wallet at a laundromat and telling the investigating police officer that she didn’t take any money from the wallet before she set it back down.

At about 11:31 a.m. on June 17, the victim reported that his wallet containing about $1,500 had been stolen from the Senor Bubbles Laundromat (4080 SW 24th Avenue). Video surveillance reportedly shows Simmons picking up the wallet from a table where the victim had left it; she is shown opening the wallet and looking around before going into the women’s restroom for some time. When she leaves the bathroom, she is reportedly carrying something wrapped in paper towels.

The officer reportedly used Simmons’ laundromat membership card to identify the woman in the video and spoke with her the next day. Post Miranda, she reportedly said she had picked up the wallet to find the owner and had wrapped it in paper towels so nobody would see her walking around with the wallet. She allegedly said that she put the wallet down in the laundromat and did not take anything from it.

Simmons met with another officer after her interview with the first officer, and she reportedly told the second officer that she had not been honest with the first officer because she did not want to be arrested in front of her children. She said that she briefly looked for the owner of the wallet after she found it, but didn’t see anyone; she reportedly said that she took about $940 in cash from the wallet and briefly took the wallet back to her house before driving to a nearby apartment complex, where she dropped the wallet in a trash can. She was reportedly unable to describe where the trash can was but said she had gone back to try to retrieve the wallet and had found that the trash can had been emptied.

Simmons was reportedly remorseful and offered to return the money, saying she had spent $140 but had put $800 in her bank account. However, when the sworn complaint was completed on June 26, the officer reported that she had not returned any of the money.

A warrant for her arrest was issued on July 1 by Judge William Davis with a recommended bail of $600. Simmons was arrested on July 8 and has been released after posting bail.

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.