BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — Surveillance footage showing a woman stealing UPS packages from the top of a drop box outside a hardware store in Inez led to the arrest of a 54-year-old woman Friday, authorities said.

Evans Hardware manager Mike Sweeney posted a video of the most recent theft to Facebook on Friday. The footage shows a dark-colored car pulling up in front of Evans Hardware. A woman steps out, opens the passenger-side door, lifts two packages from the top of the box and places them inside before driving away.

Sweeney said the same woman had struck before.

“Last week a guy came in and said, ‘There’s a lady out there and she got my package,’” he recalled. “She took off but he caught her and got his package back.”

On Aug. 27, another customer reported not receiving tracking information on a shipment. That prompted Sweeney to review surveillance video, which he then shared with the police.

“The same lady came and did the same thing,” Sweeney said. “We called the police again. They identified her and got a warrant for her.”

By 7:16 p.m. Friday, deputies with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office had Inez resident Rose Johnson in custody.

A warrant obtained by Chief Deputy Chris Kidd accuses Johnson of theft of mail matter on Aug. 18 and Aug. 27.