Husband and Wife Arrested for Shoplifting in Toccoa

A husband and wife team face multiple charges in Toccoa in connection to a host of alleged shoplifting cases.

Toccoa Police Chief Tim Jarrell said that in recent months, the police department was flooded with reports of shoplifting cases throughout the city.

Jarrell said police could not initially identify suspects, but did have a partial tag number and a description of a vehicle connected to the shoplifting cases.

He said that vehicle, a 1994 Honda Accord, was spotted at the Toccoa Wal-Mart on Monday just before 12:30 p.m.

“There was a male behind the driver’s wheel of the vehicle,” said Jarrell. “The vehicle was parked on the side of Wal-Mart. We made contact with loss prevention at Wal-Mart, who was able to help us locate a female inside the business.”

Jarrell said both the man in the vehicle and the woman in the store were detained by authorities.

He said police arrested 52-year-old Timothy Glenn Pendley and 46-year-old Rachel Mechell Pendley, both of Gainesville.

According to Jarrell, the two have been tied to a number of incidents in Toccoa alone in the last couple of months.

“These individuals were suspected of committing eight shopliftings that we are aware of,” said Jarrell. “One at Cato’s, two at Belk’s, one at Tractor Supply, and four at the Wal-Mart here in Toccoa from April to June of 2016.”

Jarrell said the couple took thousands of dollars of items like clothes, small electronics, and other miscellaneous items.

None of the items have been recovered yet and Jarrell said police are working to figure out what the couple did with the items.

Also, he said the couple is being looked at as people of interest in shoplifting cases in other jurisdictions in northeast Georgia and upstate South Carolina.

Currently, the Pendley’s are charged with multiple counts of Theft by Shoplifting.

According to Jarrell, the Toccoa Police Department is working with the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office on the exact nature of any possible further charges.

At last report, the Pendley’s were both being held in the Stephens County Jail.