A 54-year-old Manning woman was charged about 2:10 a.m. May 3 with shoplifting after police spotted her allegedly stealing potted flowers from a store in the 100 block of North Brooks Street in Manning.
According to reports, the woman was found with her car parked on the side of Maxway with the driver's side front door open. Police approached the vehicle and asked the suspect what she was doing. She answered that she was "looking at flowers."
Police then spotted two pots of flowers in her passenger's side floor board with a purse on top of them.
When asked about trhe flowers, the suspect said she had bought them earlier from another store. The woman was barefoot and there were footprints leading from where she was parked to the area where the exact type of flowers were displayed on the front porch area of the store.
Confronted with this information, the suspect said she stole them because she did not have the money to pay for them.
The Manning Times does not publish the names of suspects charged with first offense magistrate-level cases, like first-offense shoplifting.
