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Duo accused of entering store to fill up garbage bags with merchandise

By Howard B. Owens

Two Buffalo residents were arrested yesterday after they allegedly entered the Batavia JC Penney store with large garbage bags and tried to fill them with merchandise.

When approached by store employees, the couple reportedly dropped a bag stuffed with clothes, left the store, got into a van and drove away.

The incident was reported at 1:50 p.m.

A description of the van was provided to local law enforcement and it was reportedly stopped on Route 33 in Corfu by Corfu Police and State Police.

Taken into custody and turned over to Batavia Police were Milton J. Campbell, 51, of 825 Fillmore Ave., Buffalo, and Maria N. Manning, 39, of 102 Stevens St., Buffalo.

Campbell and Manning were jailed without bail.

Neil Richardson

This certainly is a really sad story. I am sure they will pay for their crimes but I think the bigger picture could be the fact that the economy is so bad that people may feel driven to this type of act.

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May 20, 2010, 8:13am Permalink
Bryant Tyson

Just for the fun of it they drove from Buffalo to Batavia to go to Penney's. Fill a garbage with colthes and drop it in the store and drive back to Buffalo? If the economy is that bad why travel that far to steal colthes?

No bail Ha Ha! Hope they get the max!Good thing stupid is not a crime they would get life.

May 20, 2010, 4:06pm Permalink
Jeremiah Pedro

Intent says a lot. Their actions gave no indication that they intended to pay for the items. Therefore a reasonable person could conclude that they intended to deprive the merchant of the property with out proper payment.
If they had intended to pay for the items and were just using the garbage bags as a means to move their selections to the register then they would not have likely reacted the way they did when approached by store employees.

110.00 Attempt to commit a crime.
A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime when, with intent
to commit a crime, he engages in conduct which tends to effect the
commission of such crime.

110.10 Attempt to commit a crime; no defense.
If the conduct in which a person engages otherwise constitutes an
attempt to commit a crime pursuant to section 110.00, it is no defense
to a prosecution for such attempt that the crime charged to have been
attempted was, under the attendant circumstances, factually or legally
impossible of commission, if such crime could have been committed had
the attendant circumstances been as such person believed them to be.

If nothing else the two are guilty of attempt.

May 21, 2010, 1:20am Permalink
Jeremiah Pedro

so do the retailers just refuse to press charges? Or is it the prosecutes that refuse to try the case? It's been a long time and cross the country since I worked in retail and I'm not up to speed on the way things work in small town Batavia.

May 21, 2010, 12:20pm Permalink

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