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Soon after Montoursville police confronted Stephanie Louiz inside Walmart on Sunday afternoon about allegedly stealing an store employee's wallet, the 36-year-old from Corning, New York, told them that she and her friend, David Smith, were "on their way to New Jersey to enter a rehab" facility for those coping with heroin and methamphetamine addiction, according to an affidavit.
It turned out that Louiz had a small amount of both drugs in her purse at the time, police said.
Police allege that upon arriving together at the department store parking lot in a 2017 Jeep Patriot, Louiz entered the employee's car and removed her wallet before walking into the store. This was all captured on Walmart's store surveillance camera as it was happening, and police were soon called to the scene, the court document stated.
Smith, 37, of Corning, sitting in the driver's seat, stayed in the Jeep, parked right next to the employee's car, while Louiz was in the store, police said. Upon arriving at the parking lot, an officer approached Smith and told him that police were investigating a theft from the vehicle that was parked right next to the Jeep. "Smith denied entering the vehicle," the affidavit stated. When an officer entered the Jeep's license plate in the National Crime Information Crime computer system, he learned that the vehicle had been reported stolen from Corning hours earlier.
Smith was arrested on the spot while Louiz was taken in custody in the store's electronic department, where she was attempting to buy a cellphone, police said, adding that she had the employee's stolen wallet in her possession.
When asked why she had heroin and methamphetamines in her purse if she and Smith were planning to check themselves into a drug rehabilitation center, Louiz could not give the officer an answer, the affidavit stated. She and Smith were both arraigned before District Judge Gary Whiteman. Louiz was charged with theft, possession of controlled substances and possession of drug paraphernalia, was committed to the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $7,500 bail while Smith, charged with one felony count of receiving stolen property, was jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail.