Shoppers crowd the streets outside the Victoria's Secret store in New York City on Black Friday, November 23, 2007. (File/UPI Photo/John Angelillo) . |
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(UPI) -- A security guard at Victoria’s Secret discovered a dead male fetus in the bag of suspected teen shoplifter Tiona Rodriguez when she was busted at the chain’s Herald Square location in New York City.
Police were called after security spotted 17-year-old Rodriguez and her friend, Francis Estevez, snatching garments and the two ladies were quickly corralled in a backroom. When officers detected a strong odor seeping into the air, a store security guard made the disgusting discovery.
Rodriguez told police she had suffered a miscarriage the day before. The young woman, who has a healthy son, was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
According to a police source, Rodriguez was at least 6-and-a-half months pregnant when she went into labor. “She said she didn’t know what to do,” the source said.
“She’s a good girl. I can’t believe she would do that,” said Zami Ford, Rodriguez’s neighbor in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. “Who the hell would do that? That’s sickening.”
Ford said Rodriguez lives with her mother and 2-year-old son.
“She goes to school. She does what she has to do. She’s no problem,” Ford said. “We grew up together. I’ve known her since she was little. She was probably nervous and didn’t know what to do. She would never hurt anyone.”
Rodriguez and Estevez were charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.