Alaskan Woman Tries to Use Cab as Getaway Car

A woman has been accused of stealing televisions and then hiring a cabbie as her getaway driver has been accused of doing the same thing a week after posting bail.

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By Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Story Created: Feb 21, 2011 at 12:48 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Feb 21, 2011 at 12:48 PM AKDT

Original article posted March 8, 2010

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – A North Pole woman who was arrested last year on suspicion of stealing televisions from Sam's Club and hiring a cabbie as her getaway driver has been accused of doing the same thing at another store one week after posting bail in her first case.

Lana L. Schneidewind, 27, has been charged with new counts of second-degree felony robbery and misdemeanor theft.

Fairbanks police were called to the Fred Meyer on the Old Steese Highway just after 10 a.m. Friday for a report of a woman walking out of the store without paying for a television and trying to leave in a cab.

Schneidewind, who was identified by Fred Meyer employees as the suspect, allegedly refused to pay for the $450 television in the electronics department, saying she had to shop for other items in the store.

A clerk followed her out of the store telling her the television did not belong to her. 

Schneidewind then got in the back of a cab, reached over the driver's shoulder and tried to steal money out of the driver's shirt pocket, court documents allege. The driver was able to protect his cash by clenching the money in his fist.

The suspect struggled with him for about a minute, trying to get the money but gave up the fight and walked away from the scene when passersby approached the cab.

Schneidewind was arrested in December when she went into Sam's Club on two occasions and allegedly stole $6,000 worth of televisions by walking out the back door and loading the televisions into a taxi.

In that case, the cab driver told his landlord, who worked in loss prevention at Sam's Club, about Schneidewind's suspicious activities, which led to her arrest.

She is scheduled to enter a guilty plea in that case in June and was released on bail last Friday, according to court records.

Schneidewind has several prior misdemeanor convictions, including a 2001 conviction for third-degree theft.

Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at 459-7545.

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