Woman Arrested Outside Apple Store with $2,000 in Stolen Merchandise

Boston Police allegedly caught a Boston woman with more than $2,000 in fraudulently purchased goods, including an iPhone 5, while she was still shopping on Boylston Street in the Back Bay, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley's office.

Kathryn Jemmett, 45, of the Fenway neighborhood was arraigned on Thursday in Boston Municipal Court on charges of receiving stolen property and credit card fraud over $250. Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons imposed $500 cash bail.

Boston Police responded to the Back Bay Apple Store on Boylston Street on Wednesday at about 8:15 p.m. to speak with a man whose wallet had been stolen from his locker at a Prudential Center gym. The man, a 24-year-old South Boston resident, had gotten a text from his credit card company stating that a $1,239 purchase had just been made on his card at that location, and on checking his locker he also found that his watch, wallet, and winter coat had also been stolen.

While speaking to the officer, the victim received a second text message indicating that his credit card had been used to make two $600 purchases at the nearby Verizon store.

With this information, a Boston police officer drove down Boylston Street in time to reportedly see Jemmett leaving the store with several large bags. He asked an employee if anyone had just made such a purchase, and the employee pointed at Jemmett.

“Yes,” the employee said, according to police. “She did.”

The officer stopped Jemmett and asked for the credit card with which she had made the purchases. She presented a card in the name of the South Boston man, at which time she was placed under arrest.

During an inventory of her possessions, police also recovered the man’s bank card and gym membership card. Based on receipts and items in her bags, investigators believed Jemmett purchased an iPhone 5, an Apple TV receiver, a designer tote bag, two 16GB iPads, and two iPad screen protectors on that victim’s credit card. The victim’s wallet, watch, and coat remain missing.

Police said they also recovered a credit card in the name of another man; that card had not been reported stolen, but officers soon learned that it had been used to purchase an Xbox 360, a CD cleaner, two bottles of orange juice, two packages of razors, a copy of Vogue, and $600 in gift cards to various retailers and fast food restaurants.

In a post-arrest statement to detectives, Jemmett allegedly said that a man gave her the stolen credit cards. She said knew the man only as “Jack” and described him as a white male who had once been on America’s Most Wanted.

Jemmett has a record of shoplifting and receiving stolen property cases ending in convictions or continuances without findings in Natick, Quincy, and Newton, according to the DA's office. She will return to court on Feb. 7.