California shoplifter returns to store to ask for dropped phone back

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A woman accused of shoplifting around $600-worth of merchandise from a nail supply store returned to the scene of the crime only minutes later to ask for the phone that she dropped.

The suspect allegedly assaulted the owner of the Premier Nail Supply in Murrieta when she came back in after the owner offered her an exchange of the stolen goods for her phone.

The incident happened on 19 September just after midday and was caught on surveillance in the store, shared with Fox 11.

The video shows two women - identified as Kaydrianna Hall, 24, and Serenadi Banks, 19 - running out of the store with a haul of unpurchased nail supplies.

The cashier and the store owner run out after the women but return empty-handed.

Moments later, one of the women returns, apparently to ask for her phone back after she dropped it during her quick escape with the stolen goods.

The phone had both her California driver’s licence and her credit card in its case.

After being offered the phone if she gave the merchandise back, she lunges towards the store owner and knocks him to the ground.

She then turns to the cashier, who is heavily pregnant, and roughs her up by pushing her around.

The store owner only suffered minor injuries, but both he and the cashier were left in a state of shock.

The theft, which was less valuable than the phone itself, resulted in a robbery charge.

Both women left in a black car but were contacted by police minutes later when they were still sitting in their car outside their home, just one mile away, with their stolen merchandise in plain sight.

"For sure woulda been easier to just buy the products with the credit card that was in the phone case," Murrieta police said in a statement on Facebook.

Both women were taken to jail but later released after posting a $5,000 bail each.