POLK COUNTY, FL - Police have arrested a woman in her fifties after she allegedly stole an inflatable Halloween ghost from her neighbor's front porch.
The woman, a 53-year-old grandmother, has been identified as Tonya Mannion. She was reportedly looking after her three grandchildren when she took them for a ride in her hometown of South Lakeland to look at Halloween decorations, PEOPLE reported. It was during that ride when she got out of her car and allegedly stole an inflatable Halloween ghost from one of her neighbor's front porch.
The incident took place on October 17, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "She’s got two 8-year-olds and the 9-year-old that she’s babysitting for her daughter. And at some point in time … she decides to take them for a ride to look at Halloween decorations … around South Lakeland,” Judd said “… One of the children says, ‘Look at that ghost … it’s awesome.’ So [Mannion] says, ‘Do you want it?’ And they go, ‘Sure.'"
"So she stops the car and she walks onto the front porch, unplugs the inflatable ghost and takes it. She ripped off the ghost and put it in the car and drove off,” he alleged.
Surveillance footage from the neighbor's front porch allegedly caught a woman believed to be Mannion walking up to the front porch, unplugging the inflatable Halloween ghost, and carrying it back to her car, which was parked at the front of the house. Judd said police went to the scene, found Mannion and stopped her with the ghost on her possession.
"She got the ghost and then she gave up the ghost and then we took her to jail,” Judd added. Mannion allegedly told police after her arrest that she took the ghost because he grandchildren wanted it. The ghost reportedly costs $15 in stores. Two days after her arrest, she was released from jail on a $8,750 bond.
Mannion was charged with causing a child to become a delinquent, unarmed burglary, criminal mischief and petit theft. She did, however, return the ghost. "What kind of example is that for the grandchildren?” Judd said. “...So trick or treat, Grandma. We recovered the ghost and you got the trick."
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