Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Crystal Lashay Cook, 33, was arrested yesterday for allegedly stealing two sanders from Home Depot and immediately taking them to a pawn shop.
At about 3:47 p.m. on December 16, an employee of Home Depot (5150 NW 13th Street) stopped a woman carrying two sanders (one valued at $84 and one valued at $71.86) and asked her for a receipt, but the woman ignored her and walked out of the store with the sanders.
The store’s Loss Prevention Officer (LPO) reviewed store surveillance video and saw that the woman entered the store at 3:44 p.m., went straight to the sanders, selected two sanders, and walked out three minutes later. The LPO extracted still photos of the woman’s face and sent them to the Gainesville Police Department, where an officer used facial recognition software to identify the woman as Cook.
A patrol officer went to the store to take the theft report, and he reportedly recognized Cook immediately in the surveillance video because he had recently interacted with her in an unrelated case.