A Jacksonville woman is wanted on an active arrest warrant after she allegedly grabbed more than $900 worth of trading cards and toys from a Beach Boulevard department store, dropped the merchandise when a clerk confronted her at the door, and sped off in a car. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is asking the public for help locating 43-year-old Michelle Ross Fernandez, whom investigators have identified as the suspect in the July 21 theft.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Fernandez visited the store on Beach Boulevard that Tuesday and selected a variety of trading cards and toys before attempting to walk out without paying. A store employee stopped her at the exit, and she dropped all the merchandise before leaving the scene in a car, per the same account. JSO's weekly public appeal, which the agency features every Wednesday, is how the case came to light.
Fernandez is described as a white woman standing 5 feet 7 inches tall with brown eyes and a tattoo on her left upper arm. She is wanted in Duval County under CCR#2026-429363, and the sheriff's office has published her information on its wanted-suspects portal, wanted.jaxsheriff.org.
A Felony Charge Under Florida Law
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office's online Unsolved Crimes portal lists Fernandez's outstanding warrant under the charge of grand theft. Because the alleged haul topped $900, the case clears the $750 threshold that separates misdemeanor shoplifting from felony grand theft under Florida Statute § 812.014, which the state legislature raised from $300 in 2019. Grand theft in the third degree carries a maximum of five years in prison, five years of probation and a $5,000 fine.
Florida also gave prosecutors more tools to pursue repeat retail thieves in 2024, when House Bill 549 took effect. The law allows prosecutors to aggregate multiple shoplifting incidents within a 120-day window to reach felony thresholds and stiffens penalties for repeat offenders. It is not known from available records whether Fernandez has prior retail theft convictions, and it remains unclear whether she had help, such as a driver waiting in the getaway car.
Trading Cards Keep Turning Up as Theft Targets
The Beach Boulevard case fits a pattern authorities have flagged across Florida. In March, a Florida Attorney General investigation charged a man with stealing nearly $40,000 in collectible trading cards from Target stores statewide, according to OkDiario. Trading cards are frequently targeted in retail theft cases because they are compact and can be resold quickly on secondary markets.
Northeast Florida has seen its own share of card-theft cases recently. Flagler County deputies arrested a suspect last September for shoplifting $1,600 worth of NFL and NBA card boxes from a Target, and Jacksonville comic shop Gotham City Limit reported a coordinated theft of $1,500 in collectible cards and merchandise in December, both according to First Coast News.
How to Report a Sighting
Beach Boulevard, also known as State Road 212, is a major commercial corridor lined with big-box stores and heavy traffic, the kind of setting that can complicate efforts to track a suspect who flees by car. JSO has previously used its Wanted Wednesday campaign to seek suspects tied to a commercial robbery case and other retail thefts around the city.
Anyone with information on Fernandez's whereabouts is asked to contact JSO's non-emergency line at 904-630-0500 or email [email protected], rather than approach her directly. Tipsters can also go through First Coast Crime Stoppers, which accepts anonymous tips about Fernandez and offers cash rewards of up to $3,000 for information leading to an arrest in non-homicide cases across Northeast Florida.
