The case of a foreign national who was accused of stealing from a woman’s hand bag was discontinued when the accused appeared before the St Ann Parish Court on Wednesday, July 19.
Estelle Torgman was charged for simple larceny arising out of an incident on July 14, when she entered a store in Ocho Rios, St Ann and allegedly stole J$2000 from an employee’s handbag.
Allegations are that on the day in question Torgman entered the store on Main Street, Ocho Rios, at about 11:30 a.m. and was ‘shopping around’. Torgman removed a handbag from an area in the store and went to the restroom.
Allegations also state that some information was passed from one person to another after which a check of the bag was made by the owner and the money was allegedly found missing.
The case was brought before the court one day earlier, on Tuesday, July 18. On that day Torgman told the court that she saw a Michael Kors handbag on the shelf. She said it had a tag and was filled with newspaper so she thought it was for sale as items like these are sold in the store.
Torgman admitted to removing the bag from the shelf but said she returned it when she noticed it was someone’s personal bag.
The investigating officer at that time, however, had not yet viewed the surveillance footage, hence the court was unable to take a position on that day.
The matter was set for Wednesday in order for the officer to view the tape.
On Wednesday, the officer presented to the court what he had seen on the tape. He says Torgman is seen removing the bag from the area and going into the restroom with it and other items from the store.
The officer says Torgman is seen coming from the restroom about five minutes later and placing the bag where it was before it was removed.
The officer says the footage does not show Torgman removing the money from the bag and that once she entered the restroom, there were no cameras to record footage.
Torgman said she went into the restroom “to fit a bathing suit because they told me I couldn’t fit it in the store there”.
Torgman also told the court that “they searched me and they didn’t find anything. I was stripped down to nothing and searched. I did not take it. All they found was $250 that my boyfriend gave me to buy cigarettes.”
The officer confirmed Torgman’s claims that the money was not found in her possession.
Other questions were raised by the crown about other items Torgman had while she was in the store. It was established that Torgman did not pass the cashier with those items, hence, she would not have stolen them.
Parish judge Vaughn Facey enquired if the restroom and the other items Torgman had were searched. It was concluded that the items were searched and the money “remains a mystery”.
The surveillance footage was the evidence the crown was relying on and since there were several questions arising that the footage was unable to provide answers for, the crown could not continue with their case.
Torgman has been in the country since April and is scheduled to depart by next week.
