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Woman hides in store ceiling to avoid arrest for shoplifting

She hid for six hours.

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A woman in Florida hid in a store's celling for six hours in an effort to dodge arrest for allegedly shoplifting.
It took police an hour and 20 minutes to capture Kristina Perkins, 37, of North Fort Meyers. She was then charged with criminal mischief, petit theft, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting a merchant, and resisting law enforcement without violence. Perkins had in her bag, three syringes and a spoon with white residue that later tested positive for morphine.
"Big Lots was evacuated due to the danger of Perkins falling through the ceiling. Over the course of several hours, a systematic search of the ceiling was completed," Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
She allegedly carried a shopping cart full of items with her into the women's restroom of a Big Lots store, MSN reports.
She then barricaded herself inside using several garbage cans, and refused to open the door despite the manager threatening to call the police. When the store manager broke open the door, the woman had disappeared and several ceiling tiles were missing.
When police arrived at the scene, they asked Perkins to surrender, which she refused to do and continued to move around the ceiling. More ceiling tiles were removed in order to locate her and police and firefighters used ladders and thermal imaging cameras to trace the woman.

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