WINONA, Minn. – A LaCrosse woman confessed on the spot to serial shoplifting and even explained the tools of the trade to arresting officers, police said. This was about 9 p.m. after police stopped a suspect car on Sarnia Street, near the Lakeview Drive Inn. Carly Frances Polak, 22, was taken to jail and booked for theft and possessing burglary tools.
Polak. Booked as a big-time shoplifter. When she had been stopped, police say, she opened up and told all.
The chase, the traffic stop, the tell-all
The episodebegan at the Walmart general store on the East End. A store agent called police that a woman in a pink sweatshirt had walked out with lots of merchandise without paying. The agent said he followed the woman to a waiting red car. She was loading merchandise into a black suitcase in the back seat, he said. When told to stop, he said, the woman dropped a bunch of merchandise to the ground and hopped in front seat. The driver sped off. At Sarnia and Carimona Street, a half mile away, police spotted tared car and a pink-shirted passenger – driving without headlights. In the backseat, officers saw a black suitcase and asked what was inside. Then came the confession. In the suitcase, officers said, was $2,100 of electronic equipment, a camera, a dashcam, women’s shoes, two Lego games, and all kinds of goods that Walmart later identified as its merchandise. The officers asked Polak how she got the electronic items from their supposedly shoplifting-proof tethers. She said she had bought a tool online for removing such anti-theft devices, officers said. She showed officers the nifty tool but added that she didn’t always use it, officers said. The stolen items in the car were worth $2,100, according to Walmart’s tally. In addition there was $1,100 in other merchandise dropped in the haste of getting into the get-away car in the Walmart parking lot as the pursuing clerk was closing in. The driver was neither held nor charged.