Elysia Johnson spent an hour in the dressing room downing Stella Artois before she exited the store and was arrested for shoplifting, say police
Elysia Johnson was thirsty.
Maybe it was all that walking around the Target store in Lathrop, California, on Saturday.
After entering the store around 3:30 p.m., Johnson grabbed a shopping cart and a separate hand basket and made her way toward the dressing room where customers try on clothing for possible purchases.
It’s not known how many or which items might have caught her eye, but among those she picked up inside the store was a six-pack of Stella Artois beer, according to Lathrop police.
Then, inside the private dressing room and beyond the gaze of store employees, she allegedly opened and downed one of the alcoholic beverages.
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Then she drank a second one.
And a third.
And a fourth.
And a fifth.
And, according to police, a sixth.
“She stayed in the dressing room for over an hour,” Lathrop police said in a news release posted to the agency’s Facebook page.
Afterward, with more than $200 worth of items in her possession, police say Johnson exited the store without paying for any of them.
A store loss prevention officer took note and detained her.
Johnson subsequently was arrested on a shoplifting charge and three other warrants, and was booked into the San Joaquin County jail where she remained Tuesday morning, PEOPLE confirms.
She was due in court Tuesday, and no bond was listed for her.
Police did not indicate whether the tab for the allegedly pilfered items included the downed beer.
It could not be determined if she’d entered a plea or retained an attorney who might speak on her behalf.