Teacher used child to shoplift - A Zephyrhills woman reportedly made a 3-year-old kid her partner in crime, by utilizing her to smuggle stolen goods out of a store.
Amanda Jo Hammon, of 5424 Tangerine Drive, was taken into custody Wednesday, after she allegedly stole $1,700 worth of goods from a Wesley Chapel Walmart using a child, four days in a row, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said.
According to several reports, the 30-year-old teacher used the child to shoplift electronic devices, including speakers, from the store and hid the merchandise in a pink container the tot carried on one occasion, and on three other days she tucked the stolen items into a backpack the child carried.
The thefts, which happened Sept. 5 through Monday, were caught on a Walmart surveillance camera, and authorities tracked the teacher who used a child to shoplift and arrested her alongside her boyfriend, Jason Dorman.
Hammon, who had taught at Wesley Chapel's John Long Middle School for almost 10 years before she suddenly resigned Wednesday, with a short handwritten letter, was charged with four counts of aggravated retail grand theft and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was booked at the Land O'Lakes Jail where she is being held on a $20,150 bail, The Tampa Tribune reported.
Her accomplice, Dorman, 32, of 14649 Treeleaf Lane, Dade City, was reportedly charged with one count of aggravated retail grand theft and is being held at the Land O'Lakes Jail on a $5,000 bail.
The teacher who used a child to shoplift told authorities after her arrest that she planned to sell the stolen merchandise for drug money.
Although the sheriff's office did not disclose Hammon's relationship to the kid, New York Daily News identified the child as her daughter.
The daughter of the teacher who used a child to shoplift, is reportedly staying with a neighbor after her mother was arrested.
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