Several Augusta women went on a shoplifting spree around the state, and now three of them are in the Putnam County jail. Two more are being sought, local authorities say.
Natasha Nicole Bush, 31; Laylia Jade Goetz, 21; and Omaia Shaneel Goetz, 20, all of Augusta, are facing felony shoplifting charges.
On Dec. 15, Eatonton Police Department Officer Nathan Crooks responded to a call at the Eatonton Walmart regarding a shoplifting incident that happened around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14.
A store administrator showed Crooks security video footage of five women loading their shopping carts with gaming computers, gaming chairs, gaming monitors, and other items, according to Eatonton Police Investigator Hargrove Jones.
“They filled their carts, went to the self-checkout, scanned everything and bagged it, and then they just walked out without paying,” Jones said.
Security cameras in Walmart’s parking lot captured the women getting into two vehicles: a Kia Soul and a Jeep Patriot. As they left the parking lot, the Kia’s license plate was visible on the security camera, and then both vehicles were located and tracked via Flock cameras.
The Kia was registered to a woman in Augusta, so Jones went there to talk with her. The woman had an alibi because she was at work, but told Jones the identity of the three women who were in her car. They were her daughters and sister-in-law, she said.
Further investigation revealed that the women had recently been arrested in Columbia and Banks Counties for reportedly doing the same thing there.
“They’d been going in and sticking to taking the same kind of stuff, which added up to several grand in merchandise every time,” Jones said. “In Banks County, they were trying to load it all on a rental truck, and that’s how they got caught. They got arrested at the Banks County Walmart because they were seen loading it on a rental truck, and someone thought ‘something’s wrong with that.’
Jones said that while he was in Banks County investigating, another Eatonton police officer called him and said McDuffie County had notified him that the same group was suspected of shoplifting at that Walmart.
The items reportedly taken from the Eatonton Walmart totaled around $1,900, according to Crooks’ report. A Putnam County Sheriff’s deputy picked them up from the Banks County Sheriff’s Office and booked them into Putnam County’s jail. Jones said four people were arrested in the Banks County case, but one of them was a brother of one of the women, and no males were involved in the Putnam County incident. Jones is in the process of identifying and locating the other two females who left Walmart in the Jeep.
“So, we’re not just going to do a report, we’re going actually to arrest these people,” Cardwell said. “We just have to figure out who they are.”