A 24-year-old Wauwatosa woman is facing retail theft charges after police say she stole quantities of liquor from two area grocery stores on at least three different dates in 2014.
Emily Ozburn was charged Tuesday in Racine County Circuit Court with three misdemeanor counts of retail theft and six counts of misdemeanor bail jumping. If convicted, she faces up to almost seven years in jail and/or up to $90,000 in fines,
According to the criminal complaints, Ozburn and another woman visited Malicki’s Piggly Wiggly, 5201 Washington Avenue, last Oct. 13 and 19 and stole bottles of liquor. On Oct 17 they also visited Pick n’ Save, 5111 Douglas Avenue, and got away with additional bottles of alcohol.
Police say the thefts were discovered when store security watched surveillance video. In each case, Ozburn and another woman enter the store and use their hands or clothing to conceal their faces from cameras. They also use a cart while they walk through the store, filling it with various grocery items, before they enter the liquor aisle and fill the cart with various bottles of alcohol.
The pair exit the liquor department in at least one video, the complaint reads, where store personnel later discover the cart still filled with grocery products but not the liquor. Video reveals the women carrying bags past the last point of purchase that appear filled with heavy items.
Officers say a couple of weeks later security from Pick ‘n Save learned that Ozburn and her accomplice were arrested in Oak Creek at a Piggly Wiggly for allegedly stealing alcohol. When Mount Pleasant police received the women’s booking photos they matched them to surveillance video and positively identified them.
Ozburn as pending misdemeanor cases from 2013 and 2014 for five counts of theft in a business setting and retail theft, respectively. As a condition of her bond, Ozburn was ordered not to commit any additional criminal offenses.
She remains in the Racine County Jail on a $100 cash bond. Ozburn will next be in court for these new charges on Feb. 26.
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