Woman Faces Election Day Shoplifting Charge

An Easton woman allegedly shoplifted on Friday the 13th in July and hadn’t been charged -- until she apparently shoplifted on Election Day and got caught.

And both her targets were in Palmer Township, where she was prosecuted for a 2011 retail theft case. She was accepted into a program for first-time offenders shortly before the July incident, court records indicate.

Nicole Marie Sestak, 30, of 119 Parker Ave. is accused of shoplifting almost $1,000 in merchandise from the Bon-Ton in the Palmer Park Mall on July 13. She handed over about half the merchandise before fleeing, but got away with jewelry, court records say.

On Tuesday, she allegedly took about $175 in items from the Giant Food Store on S. 25th Street, dropped a bag with the items before fleeing, but later returned to check on a male companion and was apprehended, the records say.

She was arraigned  Tuesday night by on-duty District Judge Douglas Schlegel of Wind Gap on retail theft charges in both incidents and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail.

A criminal complaint for the July case filed by Palmer Officer Charles Billiard provides the following details:

--Around 9:30 that Friday night, a Bon-Ton loss-prevention official approached another Palmer officer at a nearby bank to report a theft and that the apparent thief, a woman, fled in a gold Honda sedan.

--The official told Billiard he had seen the woman – later identified as Sestak – putting jewelry, perfume, clothing and handbags inside an American Eagle bag as she walked through the store.

--The official tried to stop her after she left without paying. She refused to re-enter the store when he confronted her in the parking lot. But she handed over the American Eagle bag, went to her car and drove away. The official copied down her license plate number.

--The official said Sestak took about $946 in merchandise, with $446 of it recovered in the bag. But he said she got away with about $500 in jewelry.

--Police later identified Sestak through her license plate number and with the store official picking her out of a photo lineup.

Sestak reappeared on Palmer police’s radar screen around 12:40pm Election Day, when Officer Richard Marshall was dispatched to the Giant for a theft incident. He wrote in a criminal complaint:

--Sestak entered the store with a man. They went their separate ways. She put groceries in a shopping cart. But in the pet food aisle, she transferred the items into her “handbag.”

--She left the store, was confronted by a loss-prevention official and fled – but only after dropping her grocery-filled bag. She had concealed $174.91 in groceries inside the bag, the store official said.

--Meanwhile, store officials had stopped the man “for other investigations,” and while he spoke to them, Sestak returned. She was taken into custody. The man was charged for “other matters” but his name was not listed in court records for Sestak.

Court records say Sestak was charged with retail theft in Palmer for a Dec. 20, 2011 incident. In June, she was accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program for first-time offenders.