Canada’s Mounties can boast of always getting their man, and now the Mounted Patrol of the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office can make the same claim about a woman.
The Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that its horseback heroes played a key role in corralling a suspected shoplifter in Stockton’s Lincoln Center over the weekend.
Mounted deputies were keeping a watch over the shopping center shortly on Saturday — a peak day for holiday shopping — when they received a report just after 1 p.m. about a shoplifter attempting to make a getaway. Authorities said the suspect had skedaddled with about $800 worth of cosmetics from a Sephora store without paying.
“Unfortunately for her, one of our deputies dismounted their trusty steed and quickly ‘reined in’ the situation, detaining her before she could even get the car door open,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post.
The woman, whose name was not disclosed, was cited for petty theft, not only a crime but a clear violation of the Code of the West. The purloined items were retrieved. She told the cowpunchers, er, deputies she had never shoplifted before.
The incident was chalked up as just another day’s work in the wide open spaces — it was a parking lot, after all — for the lone rangers of Stockton area law enforcement.
“Our Mounted Patrol is always ready to ride to the rescue even if you’re just horsing around,” the Sheriff’s Office said.