A Maryland man and a Philadelphia woman are facing charges after they allegedly forced three children to participate in their retail theft scheme at the Montgomeryville Target.
Antwuan Atkinson, 31, and Nia Killen, 26, have both been charged with misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors, retail theft, receiving stolen property, and related conspiracy charges. Both are free on $20,000 unsecured bail.
Investigators said Atkinson and Killen employed a scheme to use the children to push carts of stolen merchandise out of the store on Jan. 29 and Feb. 3, where the accused then took control of the carts and placed the items in their vehicle. In total, they allegedly stole $747.74 in merchandise across the incidents.
In the first incident, Atkinson and Killen entered the store with three children, before Killen went off on her own and Atkinson visited various areas of the store with the three children inside of his cart, according to charging documents. Atkinson then placed several small appliances into the cart, placed his coat on top of the items, then handed off the cart to one of the children, who pushed the cart outside without paying, police said.
Once the cart was outside, Atkinson took control of the cart, Killen met them at their vehicle and they loaded the items into their vehicle, police said.
In the second incident, Killen stayed outside at the vehicle while Atkinson again took the three children inside of the store, according to investigators. After placing various items and appliances into the cart, Atkinson again handed off the cart to one of the children, who pushed the cart out of the store to Killen, who was waiting at the vehicle, police said. Atkinson then met Killen and the children at the vehicle, where they loaded the stolen items then left the scene, police said.
Both incidents were captured on store surveillance, which was provided to police, according to the criminal complaint.
Court filings do not indicate the relationship between Killen, Atkinson, and the three children, however the children were the same in each incident, according to charging documents.
Police said Killen had one prior arrest for retail theft in 2019, however they couldn’t determine the disposition of that case. Atkinson has one prior retail theft conviction stemming from a 2017 arrest in Maryland, police said.
Their next court appearance is a preliminary hearing April 11 at noon in front of District Judge Andrea Duffy. Both Killen and Atkinson are prohibited from entering Target as part of their bail stipulations.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
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