An Inglewood, Calif., woman, Milena Maria Celeste Martinez Mazies, 27, has been charged with felony stealing for allegedly working with six other people to steal $5,235.35 worth of merchandise from Home Depot, 3865 Vogel Road, in Arnold. Police are seeking charges against six other suspects, five of whom were arrested the day of the alleged theft, Arnold Police Maj. Clinton Wooldridge said.
The Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Martinez Mazies on March 13 with stealing more than $750, a class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. She was released March 15 on a $15,000 cash-only bond, court documents show.
The seven people suspected of the theft are of Hispanic descent and claimed to be residents of either Inglewood, Calif., or Los Angeles, Calif., Arnold Police reported.
Homeland Security Investigations also is investigating the theft, and Wooldridge said a 58-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman were being held on March 17 in Kansas City awaiting deportation. He said police are seeking stealing charges against those two through the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Wooldridge said Arnold Police also are seeking felony stealing charges against a 38-year-old man, a 36-year-old man and two 29-year-old women through the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Officers arrested all but the 38-year-old man on March 6 at the Home Depot, police reported.
Wooldridge said the 36-year-old man and two 29-year-old women were booked following their arrests and released pending application for warrants. As of March 17, the 38-year-old man had not been located.
A Home Depot employee called police at about 11:45 a.m. March 6 because he believed the suspects were trying to steal merchandise from the store. The group allegedly placed items into large storage bins and left through different doors without paying, the report said.
Investigators believe the 49-year-old woman was acting as a lookout and warned others in the store to flee when the first officer arrived. Five patrol officers and two detectives responded to the call, and they arrested the six people either in the parking lot or as they came out of the store, according to the report.
The bins used to take the items out of the business were recovered and returned to Home Depot. Among the items stacked in the bins were electric circuit boards and dimmer switches, Arnold Police reported.
An officer stopped Martinez Mazies at one of the exit doors, and she abandoned the cart she was pushing to run into the parking lot. She was arrested near the store’s outside garden area, according to the probable-cause statement.
The report said Martinez Mazies is from Nicaragua and does not have U.S. citizenship. She provided an address in Inglewood, Calif., but it is not known if she actually lives there, according to the probable-cause statement.
She is suspected to be connected to at least three other felony thefts in the St. Louis area, according to the report.
The group arrived at Home Depot in a 2018 Chrysler Pacifica and a 2021 Toyota Sienna. The 38-year-old man drove away in the silver Sienna, and the Pacifica was towed from the store, the report said.
Arnold Police believe the seven people may have been involved in similar thefts in multiple states. According to the report, the Pacifica and Sienna have been detected in the Flock Safety system, a series of license-plate-detection cameras that are operated across the nation, in Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Texas and California.
Woodridge said no items, except those taken from the Arnold Home Depot, were found in the Pacifica.