Two Women Arrested for Stealing from Burnsville Target

Two women have been charged with theft after police say they loaded a cart with merchandise at the Burnsville Target store and walked out of the store without paying for it.

Tashanda Jean Boclair, 25, of Minneapolis and Yolanda Louisia Coombs, 24, of St. Paul are charged with felony theft, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.  

They are also charged with fleeing a police officer, a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaints, Target employees called Burnsville police on Jan. 31 and reported that two women had walked out of the store with a cartload of merchandise and were in the process of loading it into a BMW in the store’s parking lot. 

When police arrived, the two women fled on foot. Officers spotted a “large amount” of merchandise in the BMW’s back seat and in a cart beside the car.

Police tracked down Boclair at a nearby furniture store. Coombs was apprehended running down a road near the store; when police approached her, she stopped running and told them she was looking for a friend, who she thought “might be stealing” from Target, according to the complaint.

Two Target employees identified Boclair and Coombs as the suspects, and told police that they watched the two load their cart and leave the store. The incident was also captured on the store’s surveillance video.

The total value of the stolen merchandise was $1,719, according to the complaint.

Coombs remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $20,000 bond. She is also being held on an outstanding theft warrant from Ramsey County. Boclair is free on a $20,000 bond.

Both women have omnibus hearings scheduled for May 29 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.