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Crime & Safety

Video Game Equipment Snatched from Best Buy, Police Say

Easton woman charged in retail theft says her son was also involved in the crime, court records state.

A woman taken in custody for an alleged theft at the Best Buy in Bethlehem Township told police that three days before, her son stole $600 in video game equipment from the same store, court records say.

The woman is Laurie Jacoby, 44, whose address is listed in online court records as Easton.

Her son is Rodney Allen Jacoby II, 26, of 1023 Butler St. in Easton, according to a criminal complaint, which notes that mother and son were stopped in the same car shortly after the alleged video game equipment theft.

The complaint says Rodney Jacoby stole an Xbox 360 console and a PlayStation 3 console – each valued at $300 – from the Best Buy in the Southmont Shopping Center at Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue the morning of May 13, a Monday.

The complaint also says that on May 16, Laurie Jacoby was taken into custody for another alleged theft at the same Best Buy.

During an interview at the township police station, she was shown pictures from surveillance video of the May 13 incident. She identified her son as the man stealing the equipment, according to the complaint filed by township Patrolman Daniel Barsnica.

Online court records say Laurie Jacoby was charged with retail theft and driving without a license in the May 16 incident. The records do not say what she allegedly stole.

She waived her preliminary hearing on May 28. She had been jailed on $2,000 bail but posted bail on May 20, the online records say.

The complaint for Rodney Jacoby says that after the alleged May 13 theft, another township officer made a traffic stop that was partially the result of a suspicious vehicle being reported in the Best Buy parking lot.

The occupants were Laurie Jacoby and Rodney Jacoby, the complaint says.

Rodney Jacoby was charged with retail theft. The complaint notes that he has no prior retail theft charges.

He was arraigned at 10:20pm Monday by on-duty District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $2,500 bail.

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