Woman on federal probation arrested for stealing 90 pallets from Publix

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Patricia Ellen Lord, 44, of Archer, was arrested yesterday and charged with stealing 90 pallets from behind the Publix at Newberry Square.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded at about 1:25 a.m. on Thursday to a report that someone in a dark-colored SUV was behind the Publix, stealing pallets and loading them on a trailer.

The person who called 911 followed the SUV and told the call-taker that pallets had fallen off the trailer as the SUV drove away. The deputy reported that an SUV with a trailer full of pallets passed him on Newberry Road, so he turned around and conducted a traffic stop at about 13200 W. Newberry Road. The deputy reported that there was a loose ratchet strap on the trailer, indicating where the pallets had fallen off.

When Lord got out of the SUV, the deputy asked her where she was coming from, and she reportedly said she was just riding around.

Post Miranda, Lord reportedly confessed to taking about 90 pallets, valued at $100 each, from Publix and said she intended to re-sell them.

Lord has been charged with grand theft. She is on federal probation for selling narcotics and has seven felony convictions (one violent) and three misdemeanor convictions (two violent). Judge Thomas Jaworski set bail at $5,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 

  • Career criminal with bail half of what she stole. Jaworski is a sorry excuse for a judge. Where is the littering charge and violation of probation charge?

  • Her prior scummy public lawyers and judges are responsible for Publix prices.

  • 10 convictions, federal probation violation, 90 pallets at a $100 each. Tommy Boy you are one of a kind, a real peach. A ROTTEN ONE. $5000 bail, what is she, your cousin? Judges like this need to be replaced.

  • Sure $100 each, that’s why they’re left at delivery sites all the time and get hauled to the dump, or that guy on Hawthorne Road who rebuilds them. They are not worth $100 or even half that used.

  • Pallets don’t cost nearly that much. She would be lucky to get $5-$10 per pallet but stealing is still wrong so 🤷‍♂️

  • this is a tricky situation! Stores do not re-use all the pallets that come into their store! Some of them put the pallets outside with the intention of someone coming to pick them up and re-sale them for about $1.25 each. I hope the officer contacted the publix manager and didn’t just go off what some person in a car said was illegal to them. The bond is low because someone inflated the value of a pallet.

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