A man and woman were arrested Sunday on suspicion of stealing 70 bottles of high-end alcohol at four North Bay Safeway stores, according to the Sonoma Police Department.
Matthew Robert Moore, 28, and a female accomplice, Frankie D. Nicholls, 24, both of Sacramento, were arrested after deputies stopped the suspect vehicle on Napa Road on Sonoma’s east side.
The two had been followed to Sonoma by loss prevention officers from another Safeway store, in Marin County. Those officers observed the male suspect exit a car and enter the Sonoma Safeway store with a backpack, while the female suspect remained in the driver’s seat of the car.
Inside the store, Moore allegedly stashed several bottles of alcohol inside the backpack, leave the store without paying, and drive away in the awaiting car.
The loss prevention officers called dispatch and followed the suspects. Sonoma Police deputies located and later stopped the suspect vehicle. According to the police report, the deputy could see the backpack on the passenger side floorboard and the suspects admitted they were coming from Safeway.
The deputy could smell a store odor of an alcoholic beverage from inside the vehicle and discovered one of the stolen bottles had broken inside the backpack, leaking on the suspect’s pants. A search of the backpack located 15 bottles of alcohol along with drug paraphernalia.
Inside the trunk, the deputies located 70 bottles of high-end alcohol, many still with the electronic sensors intact. According to the loss prevention officers, many bottles were stolen from other Safeway stores in Windsor, Petaluma, and Novato. Fifty-seven of the bottles could not be linked to a specific Safeway.
The items stolen from the Sonoma Safeway totaled over $1,300. The total loss was nearly $6,000.
The suspects were booked into the Sonoma County jail for burglary, possession of stolen property, and conspiracy to commit a crime.
The Sonoma Police Department commended the two loss prevention officers from Safeway, who were instrumental in solving the crime.
Jack Daniels and vodka are “high-end alcohol?” The effort expended by Safeway security in tracking down the heisted hooch cost far more than the swill they recovered. If they also stopped for doughnuts, the cost was astronomical.