According to court and police records, Arlene Veronica Kirn, 34, of St. Louis, at Famous Footwear in Brentwood, on September 7, selected a pair of shoes and put them on her feet.
A store employee saw her walking around the store wearing the shoes and told her she needed to return them. Kirn set down her purse and removed the shoes from her feet. The employee could see there were two other pairs of shoes inside Kirn’s purse.
Kirn threw down the shoes she removed from her feet and ran from the store, carrying the purse, without making any attempt to pay for the shoes in her purse. The employee found the empty boxes corresponding to the shoes she had seen in Kirn’s purse and called police. Kirn was identified due to a similar theft she had committed at a Famous Footwear in St. Peters.
The employee identified Kirn from a photo lineup as the person she had seen take the shoes from the store. Kirn was arrested two days later. She admitted being at the Famous Footwear in Brentwood and recalled being told to remove the shoes she put on her feet until she was stopped.
Kirn admitted that she had no money to pay for any shoes, and had intended to steal the shoes she had put on her feet. However she denied putting any shoes in her purse or stealing any shoes from the store.