An alleged stolen wallet investigation started around noon on June 8, 2024, at Ollie’s and ended around 10 p.m. at Rockin’ 8 Cinemas with two arrests. In an interesting footnote, one of the two individuals arrested, a 16-year-old female, allegedly lied to officers about her age — she told the arresting officer she was 17 — and spent six hours in jail before jail officers found out her real age and released her.
According to a report from the Douglas Police Department, the initial call came a few minutes after noon on June 8. The victim had been to Ollie’s, didn’t buy anything, and left shortly after arriving. After the victim left, she realized that she had left her wallet in the shopping cart she had used. She returned to Ollie’s and, along with employees, searched the carts and the store for the wallet. They were unable to locate the missing wallet.
The officer reviewed security camera footage and saw two individuals, a male identified as Santos Santiago Garcia-Mendez, 24, of Douglas, and a 16-year-old female, enter the store and pick the shopping cart with the wallet, which was visible in the camera footage. When the two checked out, the report says that Garcia-Mendez pushed the wallet against the front of the shopping cart and closed the front of the cart in an alleged attempt to conceal the wallet. Then they left the store.
The officer notified the night shift of what had happened.
Several hours later, the victim and another officer met at Rockin’ 8 Cinemas. The victim had been checking her accounts and noticed two failed transactions at the movie theater on a CashApp card she had in her wallet, according to the report. The theater manager was able to trace the failed transactions and saw that the two individuals who had attempted to use the card were in theater five. The officer went to the theater, found the two suspects, and began an investigation. According to the report, the female had the wallet with her. Everything was in the wallet except for an EBT card, which the victim said did not concern her.
The juvenile female stated that the wallet “fell into her cart earlier in the day” and she had tried to return it three times with no success. She said she was the one who used the card in an attempt to buy movie tickets.
Garcia-Mendez also said the wallet fell into their cart at Ollie’s and they had tried to return it multiple times, the report states. He said that they planned to return everything and reimburse the victim for the money they used on the card.
The wallet was returned to the victim and both suspects were arrested and transported to the Coffee County. Garcia-Mendez was charged with financial transaction card fraud, theft by taking, and he had a bench warrant for DUI. He remains in the Coffee County Jail.
According to the report, the juvenile told the second officer she was 17 years old. She was also arrested and transported to the jail. However, several hours after arriving at the jail, officers realized she was 16 years old. The arresting officer returned to the jail, picked her up, and took her home to her mother.