Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By David Goodhue
Published May 12, 2018
A Monroe County teacher was arrested on a theft charge
Tuesday after detectives say security camera footage from a condominium
shows her stealing a resident's beauty supplies that were just delivered to
the complex's mail room.
Christi Gardner, 41, was arrested on a
petty theft warrant signed by Monroe County Judge Sharon
Hamilton on Tuesday. She was released later in the day on a
bond of $2,500. Gardner could not be reached for comment.
According to Sheriff's Office Deputy Nicholas Thaler's
arrest report, security camera footage at Summer Seas
Condominiums at mile marker 88.5 on Plantation Key shows a
woman police say is Gardner walk into the mail room toward
packages that were delivered just moments earlier at 4:30
p.m. March 29.
Footage shows her examine the labeling on the packages
before one, a box containing ULTA beauty supplies, grabs her
attention. She steps away from the box when a condo resident
comes in to check his mail.
When the man left, Gardner returned to the mail room,
grabbed the ULTA box and quickly left, Thaler wrote in his
report.
According to the arrest affidavit, Gardner lives at an
apartment complex at mile marker 79.9, not at Summer Seas.
The buyer of the ULTA products said she paid $110 for the
order and had just received a confirmation that the package
had been delivered one minute before Gardner was filmed
leaving the building with the merchandise.
According to Thaler's report, Gardner admitted to a Monroe
Sheriff's Office detective on May 3 that she took the
package and that she was sorry she did.
The Monroe School District released as statement late
Wednesday afternoon acknowledging Gardner is a teacher at
Stanley Switlik Elementary School.
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A woman is filmed on a security camera taking a
package of beauty supplies from the mail room of the Summer Seas
Condominium on Plantation Key on March 29, 2018.
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"The District was recently made aware of the involvement of one of our
employees in an incident which resulted in their arrest by local law
enforcement," spokeswoman Lynsey Saunders, communications and community
relations coordinator wrote in an email. "Criminal charges are pending and
the District is looking into the matter to determine the most appropriate
response."
According to Gardner's Linkedin account, she has taught at Switlik since
August. She was a teacher for 14 years in Brevard County before coming to
the Keys, according to the Linkedin account, which also lists her as a Mary
Kay cosmetics "beauty consultant.
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