A 48-year-old Palm Coast woman is facing criminal charges after investigators say she brought her 9-year-old daughter along to help her shoplift dozens of dollars worth of merchandise from a local Target, then walked the child right past the registers without paying. Lisa DeBenedictis is now charged with petit theft and contributing to the delinquency of a child, and she is scheduled to be arraigned on September 1.
The incident happened at the Target on State Road 100 in Palm Coast, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. Per an arrest affidavit cited by Tampa Free Press, DeBenedictis and her daughter selected food and other goods before heading to the self-checkout area, where DeBenedictis allegedly bypassed payment for $47.27 worth of merchandise. The affidavit states she failed to scan items left inside the grocery cart and did not scan numerous other items as the pair moved through checkout.
Investigators say the haul included organic sugar, Coca-Cola, bagels, Philadelphia cream cheese, feminine wipes, an EcoTools blending brush, Bodi Sands self-tanning drops, acrylic paint, stickers, and trading card packs, per the affidavit. According to the same account, DeBenedictis placed a package of Lysol wipes directly into her daughter's pink backpack. The child allegedly took 14k gold-plated earrings valued at $19.99, a container of Lysol spray worth $2.99, and Gumi Yum candy priced at $2.99, hiding a total of $25.97 worth of items in the backpack.
Store Security Intercepted the Pair Outside
Store asset protection staff reported that a woman and a young girl were concealing merchandise and had exited the store, according to the arrest affidavit. Police responded and stopped DeBenedictis and her daughter outside the Target building. Investigators later reviewed surveillance footage from inside the store, which allegedly showed DeBenedictis and her daughter taking unpaid items and accompanying each other through all points of sale without rendering payment.
Per the Sheriff's Office, asset protection staff recovered all concealed and unscanned merchandise before deputies got involved, meaning the retailer suffered no unrecovered loss. The affidavit states that DeBenedictis encouraged and assisted her daughter in concealing the unpaid merchandise with the intent to deprive Target of it, and that her actions caused and contributed to her daughter's delinquency. The child's actions themselves constituted shoplifting and petit theft, per the same affidavit.
Sheriff Blasts Mother's Conduct
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly did not mince words in the department's weekend arrest roundup, saying, “This mom will never be mother of the year… A parent is supposed to teach her kids right from wrong and not how to be a thief. Instead of raising her daughter, she recruited her to steal from retailers.” The comment appeared in the Sheriff's Office's official release covering a busy stretch for local deputies, who made 13 arrests, answered 759 calls for service, and executed 88 traffic stops between July 31 and August 3.
DeBenedictis was booked into the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on a total bond of $6,500 — $2,500 for petit theft, $2,500 for contributing to the delinquency of a child, and $1,500 tied to an outstanding warrant for failure to appear on a traffic violation, according to Action News Jax. Court records and law enforcement reports cited by the outlet indicate DeBenedictis has prior convictions for theft and grand theft in neighboring Volusia County.
Prior Record Could Raise the Stakes
That criminal history matters. Under Florida Statute § 812.014, petit theft of property valued under $750 is ordinarily a misdemeanor, but an offender with two or more prior theft convictions can have a subsequent petit theft charge upgraded to a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in state prison, according to a legal explainer from George Law. Whether prosecutors will pursue that felony enhancement based on DeBenedictis's Volusia County record remains an open question ahead of her arraignment.
Separately, the contributing-to-delinquency charge carries its own exposure. Florida Statute § 827.04 classifies contributing to the delinquency of a minor as a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying maximum penalties of up to one year in jail, one year of probation, and a $1,000 fine, according to Hanlon Law. Florida law broadly defines the offense as inducing or persuading a minor to commit an illegal act.
Cases involving a parent directing a child to commit a crime can also trigger scrutiny beyond the criminal courts. Florida enforces mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting laws requiring anyone who suspects child exploitation or emotional harm to contact the Department of Children and Families Abuse Hotline, according to News4JAX. It is not known whether DCF has opened a parallel investigation in this case.
Part of a Broader Retail Theft Crackdown
The Palm Coast case lands amid heightened attention to shoplifting at big-box retailers nationwide. Target and similar chains increasingly rely on integrated loss prevention systems that combine aisle surveillance with self-checkout monitoring to catch concealed merchandise and skip-scanning behavior, as Hoodline has previously reported. Just a day before DeBenedictis's arrest became public, a separate Gastonia sting netted 28 arrests across a dozen stores, underscoring how aggressively retailers and police are now targeting theft at checkout.
DeBenedictis is due back in court for arraignment on September 1. What plea arrangements or legal representation may emerge before then has not been disclosed.
