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Off-duty Ohio officer nabs mall thief

By Mary Beth Lane
The Columbus Dispatch

LANCASTER, Ohio It was too hot Tuesday for their daily jog outside, so Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen and his wife pulled on their gym clothes and drove to the River Valley Mall to walk indoors.

The decision to mall-walk proved useful for Lancaster police.

The off-duty sheriff saw something suspicious when he pulled into the parking lot about 4:30 p.m. A man and a woman were unloading bags into the trunk of a white Buick parked outside a JCPenney store. They then re-entered the store with the bags.

Looks like shoplifting, Phalen told his wife, Loretta. He used his cell phone to call Lancaster police.

Officers arrived. Phalen signaled them when the man and woman emerged. The pair tried to drive away, ignoring an officer’s order to stop, but another officer blocked the couple’s Buick with his patrol car. Asked for identification, the driver said it was in the trunk.

The officer asked her to open it. She did. The trunk held clothing and jewelry with price tags and security buttons attached. There were no receipts.

The tally came to $368.68 worth of goods stolen from JCPenney and $585.44 worth stolen from Sears, Roebuck and Co., according to the Lancaster police report.

“I did what any citizen would do,” Phalen said yesterday. “I saw suspicious activity, and called and observed.”

This is the very concept, he said, of the citizens-on-patrol program that he wants to start at the sheriff’s office. The county commissioners are considering his request for startup money to send out trained volunteers to help deputies patrol the county.

Lancaster police arrested 28-year-old Teresa C. Catalan, of 117 N. Basil St. in Baltimore, Ohio, and charged her with theft and receiving stolen property, both fifth-degree felonies.

She pleaded not guilty yesterday in Fairfield County Municipal Court. She was being held in the Fairfield County jail in lieu of $5,000 bail. Her companion was not charged.

mlane@dispatch.com

Copyright 2007 The Columbus Dispatch