Staff Report

WARSAW — A Silver Lake employee has been arrested after allegedly stealing from Warsaw’s Walmart multiple times.

Kendra L. Wadkins

Kendra L. Wadkins, 36, 206 E. Sycamore St., Silver Lake, is facing two counts of theft, both misdemeanors. She serves as Silver Lake’s utilities billing and administrative assistant.

On Tuesday, Dec. 7, Silver Lake Clerk-Treasurer Tonya Conley told InkFreeNews that Wadkins is currently suspended without pay from work. She did not say when that suspension began.

According to a probable cause affidavit, on Nov. 13, a Warsaw Police officer responded to Walmart after dispatch said a woman was in its asset protection office for theft.

The officer responded to the scene and heard from a Walmart employee that the woman in the office, who identified herself to the officer as Wadkins, had numerous items in her cart that she failed to pay for.

The officer took a statement from the employee.

The employee said that at approximately 5:35 p.m. on that day, another employee let her know that there was a woman at the self-checkouts that looked like a suspect from previous theft incidents. The first employee watched the video footage and saw that the woman, Wadkins, was the suspect from before.

Employees used an app to see that Wadkins scanned two containers of broth but not a seven-foot snowman decoration. A cashier was sent to see if Wadkins needed help. Wadkins said she didn’t.

The first employee continued to watch Wadkins. She saw that Wadkins was moving the hand scanner, but not scanning all the items. She didn’t scan any of the Gain laundry items she had with her, but bagged them, which an employee verified using an app.

Wadkins paid for her transaction, took a drink out of a cooler and paid for that as well. Employees stopped Wadkins as she started to leave. The first employee told Wadkins she wanted to talk with her about unpaid items and asked her to come to the office. Wadkins agreed to.

The first Walmart employee showed the officer surveillance footage. The officer saw Wadkins take two items from her cart and put them directly in a bag. Wadkins didn’t appear to scan the items.

The Walmart employee provided the officer a printout with 17 items that weren’t paid for and located in Wadkins’ cart. The total price of the items was $181.99.

The officer told Wadkins she was being detained while the officer investigated the alleged theft. The officer asked Wadkins if she had any merchandise on her that wasn’t paid for. She allowed the officer to search her and her purse.

Wadkins told the officer that she was using the handheld scanner to scan her items. She said she didn’t know that some of her items didn’t scan.

The officer asked the Walmart employee to pull up footage of Wadkins using the scanner. The footage was from a different angle. In the video, Wadkins positioned her body with her back to the camera and her body blocking most of the cart.

The officer saw that Wadkins was using the scanner over the cart but couldn’t see all of her exact movements. The officer saw Wadkins pick up an item without the handheld scanner and place it into a Walmart bag.

The Walmart employee told the officer that another Warsaw Police officer is investigating several other theft incidents at the store. She said Wadkins was the suspect in those cases as well, but they couldn’t identify her until then.

The officer again spoke with Wadkins and told her what they observed in the video and how much the unpaid items cost. She said she thought she scanned all her items. The officer asked her about the other theft incidents. Wadkins said she’s always used the scanner, so it must be the same mistake.

The officer said based on what was observed in the footage and the amount of items stolen that they were going to arrest Wadkins.

After Wadkins was taken to the Kosciusko County Jail, the officer reviewed the entire video footage of Wadkins. The officer noticed that Wadkins appeared to be scanning some items but wasn’t actually scanning the UPC codes for the items. The officer identified those items as some that were on the list of stolen items the Walmart employee provided.

In the footage, the officer also saw Wadkins place a Gain bottle into a Walmart bag without ever holding the handheld scanner to it or scanning the bottle over the belted scanner.

The Warsaw police officer also contacted the officer in the other cases letting them know of the incident and the identification of the suspect in those cases.

According to another probable cause affidavit, those incidents occurred on Sept. 6, Oct. 2 and Oct. 11.

In them, Wadkins also scanned some items, but not others. The totals of the items stolen on those dates were $131.36, $69.39 and $93.68 respectively.

The officer investigating those cases compared images from surveillance footage to Wadkins’ booking photo in the Nov. 13 incident and confirmed her to be the suspect in the thefts.

Wadkins was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on Nov. 13 and Dec. 6, with bonds of $600 cash each time.