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Sheriff's Office: Woman Uses Girl, 8, On Shoplifting Trip

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2008

Ambar Rodriguez-Avila

TAMPA - Ambar Rodriguez-Avila took an 8-year-old girl dressed in a Batman costume on a ghastly grocery trip Thursday, authorities said.

Rodriguez-Avila, 34, placed the girl in a shopping cart at a Publix supermarket in Lutz and hid about $63 worth of items under the child, including candy, magazines, cheese, sugar, bell peppers and hot dogs, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

Store security personnel tried to stop Rodriguez-Avila in the parking lot about 8:40 p.m. after noticing she had not paid for the items, an affidavit states. Rodriguez-Avila jumped into a black 1992 Acura with the child and drove away, the affidavit states.

Security personnel reported the theft and the Acura's license tag to the sheriff's office. Deputies tracked the tag to the woman's home and arrested her about 1:40 a.m. today.

Rodriguez-Avila is charged with felony child neglect and felony petit theft. She was held at the Orient Road Jail today on $4,000 bail.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said she could not identify the relationship between the woman and the girl because of the child neglect charge.

In the past, deputies have encountered parents who have tried to steal electronics by stashing them beneath children in strollers, Carter said.

"It's tragic that an adult would use a child" in such an instance, Carter said. "It sets a very poor example."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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