According to a Sheriff’s report, 50 year old Tina Marie McBee was shopping at the Family Dollar Store located at 11155 County Line Road in Spring Hill. An employee observed the defendant placing merchandise in her black purse which was located in a shopping cart she was pushing. As the defendant approached the checkout, the employee asked McBee to open her purse. McBee then emptied the contents of her purse in the shopping cart and fled the area only to return a few seconds later to retrieve something that had fallen into the cart. The defendant then fled on foot in a Westerly direction. When law enforcement located her, she did not have the black purse on her person. The purse was located a short distance away in the woods. The defendant did have on her person a pair of black gloves that employees stated came from the store. The defendant could not explain why she had put some items in her cart and yet concealed others in her purse. McBee did state, according to deputies, that she dumped her purse with the merchandise in it because she didn’t think she would get in trouble if she left the store without it. McBee was then arrested and transported to the Hernando County Jail for Retail Theft and held on a $250 Bond.
