3 Store Clerks Say Councilwoman Tried to Shoplift

Palmdale City Councilwoman Janis DeLaTorre, who is seeking election as the city’s mayor, was held for shoplifting at a Woolworth store in Palmdale five months ago, according to three store employees.

DeLaTorre, 49, denies the accusation.

Two of the employees, who agreed to be interviewed only if they were not identified, said they detained DeLaTorre after an item she had in her purse triggered an electronic alarm as she walked out of the store one day last fall.

The third worker was a clerk who said she witnessed the incident.

The employees said they found in her purse an item worth $5 to $10 that had not been paid for. They said that upon being detained she identified herself as a City Council member.

Sheriff’s deputies were not called. The employees said DeLaTorre made a signed promise to pay the store a penalty. They said they could not remember the date of the incident, although they thought it occurred in November. The employees said Woolworth keeps records of shoplifting incidents handled internally, but company officials would not comment on whether DeLaTorre was detained.

In an interview last week, DeLaTorre said she was not in the store in November or for several months before. The eight-year council member, who is one of four mayoral candidates in Tuesday’s city election, claims the story was contrived by political foes.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I can’t believe it. No, I haven’t been in there since July or August.”

This week, DeLaTorre sent a piece of campaign literature--headlined “Look Out for the Mudslinging”--to about 1,000 households warning that she might be the subject of false allegations by other candidates. Tuesday’s edition of the Antelope Valley Press said she had predicted, among other false allegations, the charge that “she was detained by management for leaving a now-closed local dime store with cosmetics she hadn’t paid for.”

Although DeLaTorre told The Times last week that she was being victimized by a last-minute campaign smear, rumors of the incident have been circulating in Palmdale for months. Several people who work in the nearby Helping Hands Thrift Store said Woolworth employees told them about it in January. That was before DeLaTorre filed to run for mayor.

Woolworth closed the Palmdale store in late January, and none of the employees reached by The Times still work for the company or have access to company records. A spokeswoman at Woolworth Corp. headquarters in New York City said company policy prohibits discussing such an incident or confirming that it occurred.

The clerk said DeLaTorre had attempted to buy several items but left the merchandise on the counter after being told that the store did not accept personal checks. When DeLaTorre walked out the door, the alarm sounded, the employee said, and the stolen item was found in her purse.

All three employees agreed that the value of the item was $5 to $10, although none could recall the exact price.

DeLaTorre was escorted to the store office, where she was detained for 30 minutes, the employees said. Two of them questioned her in the office. They said they remember her because she produced a city-issued badge and a card identifying her as a Palmdale City Council member. She is the only female member of the council.

One of the former employees quoted DeLaTorre as telling him: “You can’t do this to me. I’m a city councilwoman.”

The workers said they filled out a report, took a picture of DeLaTorre and took another of the merchandise. They said she signed an agreement promising to reimburse the company for its enforcement cost. That is usually about $150, the employees said. Such a procedure is common company practice, they said.

A fourth person, who is close to DeLaTorre, said he was shown the store’s internal shoplifting report on her detention.

DeLaTorre was elected to the five-member Palmdale council in 1984 as a homeowner activist. She was reelected in 1988 to another four-year term. But this spring, she decided to run in the April 14 election for a two-year term as Palmdale’s mayor.

The former Woolworth employees say they have no involvement in city politics.