A pair of Springdale women have been arrested in a string of purse thefts from vehicles around the Fayetteville area that top $7,800 in stolen items, police said.
Laura Doyle, 34, and Christy Hendrix, 32, were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of several theft charges. Hendrix also faces a charge of residential burglary. Doyle faces an additional charge of breaking and entering. Both were released from the Washington County Detention Center on $3,500 bond, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Police said Hendrix and Doyle were involved in a string of eight thefts from vehicles over the course of five days in May. The suspects allegedly stole cash and items totaling almost $8,000 from the vehicles, mostly from purses that were stolen.
Police had arrested the two suspects May 17 after they allegedly used a stolen credit card from a Jeep Cherokee that was parked on Lakeview Drive in Fayetteville on May 8. The vehicle’s owner had reported $93 in cash and miscellaneous items.
Authorities also connected Hendrix and Doyle to seven other thefts from vehicles in the area. Items totally about $1,100 in value, including cash, an iPhone, a debit card and reading glasses, were stolen May 12 from the Dixie Café in Fayetteville. Doyle is accused of using the card at a local Dollar General. The suspects told police a woman named Terri Beattie had given them some of the stolen items.
That same day, items totaling $4,170 in value were stolen from a vehicle parked at the Botanical Gardens in Fayetteville. The suspects told police Beattie had stolen from the vehicle, according to an arrest warrant affidavit in Washington County Circuit Court.
Police responded to another theft from a vehicle May 13 involving $860 worth of items stolen. Doyle and Hendrix were found to be in possession of some of the stolen items, police said.
More than $1,000 in jewelry and old coins were stolen May 14 from a Village Drive home in Fayetteville, police said. Hendrix allegedly told police she drove Beattie to the home, but didn’t know she had burglarized it.
A purse containing cash, a gift card, pills and headphones valued at a total of almost $300 was stolen May 15 from a vehicle at the Fayetteville Diagnostic Center. A day later, a purse in a vehicle at Washington Regional Medical Center was stolen. It contained $150 in cash, as well as a Kohl’s credit card, a debit card and a social security card, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
The suspects’ last alleged theft that police connected them to occurred on May 17, when a purse was stolen from the Lake Fayetteville park that had $116 worth of items in it, the affidavit states.
