The value of the items in the Largo case was reported as about $12, but the theft charge was classified as a third-degree felony because of the defendant’s prior theft convictions. Florida law permits that classification for petit theft when a person has two or more prior theft convictions, according to the Florida Legislature’s statute.
Charges and prior convictions
Jennifer Dawn Gicker, 51, was charged with petit theft with two or more prior convictions, a third-degree felony, and resisting an officer without violence, a first-degree misdemeanor. IONTB reported, citing arrest affidavits, that the records list theft convictions from 2011 and 2016. The outlet also reported that records show this was Gicker’s 13th arrest in Pinellas County: IONTB’s account.
What police say happened
According to IONTB’s report of the affidavits, Gicker went to the Sprouts at 2156 E. Bay Drive at about 8:35 a.m. Thursday, took two packages of pumpkin mini-bundt cakes valued at roughly $12, and passed the registers without paying. A caller gave police a description of Gicker, her silver Toyota Camry and its license plate. Officers later found her in the car near her residence and saw the cakes on the front passenger seat, the outlet reported.
IONTB reported that an officer ordered Gicker out of the car at about 8:50 a.m. and that she refused. As officers tried to take her into custody, she pulled away and braced herself, according to the outlet’s account of the affidavits. Police broke the driver’s-side window to unlock the car and remove her. IONTB reported that she was arrested Thursday.
