Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ivey Marie Weiss, 49, of Ocala, was arrested yesterday and charged with shoplifting and engaging in a scheme to defraud after allegedly stealing over $160 in items from the Target store in Gainesville. According to the arrest report, Weiss is a District Senior Manager for Wells Fargo who has accumulated nine previous theft cases in the Target stores in Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Ocala.
At about 4 p.m. yesterday, a Loss Prevention Officer (LPO) at Target alerted a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officer that Weiss was in the store; the LPO was reportedly “very familiar” with Weiss, who has previously been identified in a different shoplifting investigation. The LPO said Weiss is known as a “traveling scammer and thief” who travels to different Target stores in various cities, including Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Ocala.
In each instance, Weiss allegedly fills a shopping cart with hundreds of dollars in merchandise, then scans and pays for a few items to generate a receipt she can show to a store associate as she walks out. She then allegedly leaves the store without paying for a majority of the items in her shopping cart. In the previous nine cases, she allegedly stole items worth $1,281.18 and, according to the arrest report, “constantly steals bedding items and LEGO toy items each time she does this.”