JPD: Target Employee Caught Stealing Cosmetics, Clothes

JOLIET, IL - A 26-year-old woman from Joliet who was hired to run a register at the Target store at 2701 Plainfield Road is no longer behind the check out counter because she's incarcerated at the Will County Jail. Joliet Police officers put Meghan Dudczyk in handcuffs around 5:30 p.m. Saturday. She was driven to the downtown jail where she was booked into custody on a charge of committing retail theft.

Deputy Chief of Police Edgar Gregory explained that Dudczyk is suspected of stealing about $225 worth of cosmetics and another $295 worth of clothes. Authorities say she placed the stolen Target merchandise into an empty Target bag that she stashed behind her counter. When she finished working on Saturday, police said, Dudczyk grabbed the bag of stolen merchandise and tried to walk out of the store, and that's when her fellow employees who worked undercover security sprang into action and stopped her.

According to Joliet Police, Dudczyk had taken 20 different cosmetics items and 14 different articles of clothing. All of the Target merchandise was recovered by the loss prevention team, police said.

Jail records show that Dudczyk, who turns 27 next month, lives in the 800 block of Joliet's Bataan Street.

She was scheduled to have a bond hearing on Monday afternoon. For now, she remains in Will County custody.

Dudczyk is not a stranger to the county jail. Joliet Police arrested her for drunken driving back in 2007 and again in 2009. In 2008, Channahon Police cited her for possession of open liquor inside a vehicle as well as possessing drug paraphernalia, court records show.

Meghan Dudczyk, 2009 mugshot

Mugshots of Meghan Dudczyk via Will County Sheriff's Department