A Lumberton woman was arrested this past Tuesday, March 9, after leaving four children under the age of six in a pickup truck, which was left running, while she spent 30 minutes inside the Lumberton Wal Mart shopping and shoplifting.

     According to Lumberton Police Chief Danny Sullins, Karen Annette Diehl, 28, parked her truck in the Wal Mart parking lot, leaving her two children and two children that she was babysitting, ages two, three, four and six, alone in the vehicle while she went inside the store. She spent 30 minutes inside the store freely shopping and stealing items by shoving them inside her pants.

     Loss prevention employees witnessed the shoplifting and captured it on security cameras. Once Diehl completed her “shopping,” she paid for several items that she had accumulated in her shopping cart. She failed, however, to pay for the two pairs of panties and other miscellaneous items that were inside her pants.

     When Diehl was arrested by the Lumberton Police Department, she told an officer the reason that she had shoplifted was because a friend had told her “it was a rush.”

     Child Protective Services was called to the scene where they took possession of the children. They were released to relatives, per CPS direction. Sullins said that CPS was conducting an investigation of its own into the welfare of the children.
Diehl was charged with theft, class C and four counts of leaving a child in a vehicle.  After spending the night in jail she was released after paying fines for five class C misdemeanors.

     “People should not have to be reminded not to leave their babies in the car,” said Sullins. “This is Texas. God has given us all common sense. Folks should use that common sense and not leave babies in the car, especially when you’re going into a store and stealing and committing crimes with their children with them. You like to think that people have better sense than that.”

     Sullins also said that Wal Mart is the last place that he would think people would steal from. “They have a well trained loss prevention team and a great security camera network there,” he said. “That works very well for police departments. Not only do we have a loss prevention person who spots them and witnesses the crime, but they also capture the crime on videotape and they do prosecute. That’s the last place I’d steal from.”