Video shows adults using kids to shoplift

BEDFORD, N.H. – A woman turned herself in to police Wednesday after a store surveillance video captured footage of two small children sneaking behind display cases to steal thousands of dollars in jewelry, apparently on instructions from their mother and grandmother.

Bedford police made the video public this week and started getting tips minutes after it first aired on local television. Police Chief David Bailey said the woman, whom he declined to identify, was not arrested because there was no warrant. She promised to return when one was prepared.

The woman said she lives in the area and has four children, one age 14 and three younger than 10, Bailey said. All are believed to have been involved, he said.

The video, taken Aug. 2 at a store called the Consignment Gallery, shows one woman, possibly the children’s mother, directing them to pocket certain items. An older woman, believed to be the grandmother, stuffs items down her shirt.

A woman who identified herself as the older woman on the video talked with WMUR-TV on Wednesday and denied stuffing merchandise down her shirt, saying that is where she carries her cell phone, money and other belongings.

She said she was shopping for a bed with her daughter when her grandchildren began to misbehave. The woman said her daughter was not stealing jewelry but rather trying to get her children to put back items they had taken.

Detective Matt Fleming said more than $2,000 in jewelry was stolen from the store.