Women Charged For Helpfully Bringing Friend's Stolen Merchandise Back into JC Penney's

ORLAND PARK, IL -- A Justice woman was arrested after she returned stolen merchandise to an Orland Square Mall by leaving it in the store’s furniture department, prosecutors said. Challeyn Gmeinder, 49, appeared before Cook County Judge Peter Felice on a charge of felony retail theft. The merchandise had been allegedly carried out of the store by Gmeinder’s male companion.

The prosecutor said that on Sept. 19, the loss prevention officer at the J.C. Penney in Orland Square noticed Gmeinder’s male companion removing $237 worth of merchandise and carrying it out of the store. When Gmeinder and her friend were stopped outside the store, the prosecutor said Gmeinder took the nine items back into JC Penney’s and dumped them in the furniture department.

The assistant public defender told the judge that Gmeinder just lost her husband in June. She is currently studying phlebotomy.

The prosecutor said that Gmeinder has six prior retail theft convictions, including stints in the Illinois Department of Corrections. She also has eight misdemeanor convictions reduced from felonies. Bail was set at $100,000.

When it was explained to her that she would have to pay 10 percent of the bail, Gmeinder could be heard saying as she left the courtroom: “Ten thousand dollars for walking out the store with nothing?”

Gmeinder is due back in court Oct. 4 in Bridgeview.