The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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June 15, 2009

Branson police: Wal-Mart poser, accomplice nabbed

By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

Authorities say a woman posing as a Wal-Mart employee and a male accomplice were caught allegedly attempting to steal a large-screen television set in Branson a day after possibly pulling off the same trick at a Wal-Mart store in Joplin.

Stephanie Alma Brown, 21, and Randy Dean McBroom II, 22, both of Broken Arrow, Okla., were taken into custody Sunday by Branson police after allegedly stealing a TV from the Wal-Mart store on West Highway 76. Brown allegedly posed as an employee of the store to accomplish the theft.

Brown and McBroom were being held Monday at the Taney County Jail on $20,000 bonds.

Branson police reports say officers located a 2002 Chevrolet pickup truck and a U-Haul trailer the couple were using on the parking lot of the store. Inside the trailer, officers found four more TVs, three of which are believed to have been taken from Wal-Mart stores in the Joplin area, Branson police said.

Officials at the Wal-Mart store at 1501 S. Range Line Road called Joplin police Sunday afternoon to report that they had surveillance video of a theft that took place Saturday. The report was made to Joplin police after the couple had been arrested in Branson.

During the theft Saturday, a woman posing as an employee entered the store’s stockroom and loaded a large-screen TV onto a cart, according to a Joplin police incident report. She wheeled the cart out to a male accomplice waiting at the front of the store, the report said.

Cpl. Chuck Niess of the Joplin Police Department said the couple arrested in Branson are being looked at as suspects in the Joplin theft. But no charges have been filed against them as yet in Jasper County, he said. Niess said a full report on the theft Saturday was not yet available.

Niess said investigators also will be looking at whether the couple arrested in Branson are connected in any manner to a similar theft May 17 from the Wal-Mart store on West Seventh Street in Joplin.

In that theft, a woman posing as an employee wheeled a 52-inch TV worth $1,300 out to a female accomplice who was driving a white sport utility vehicle with Oklahoma license plates. The vehicle was pulling a U-Haul trailer.

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