Alliance police asking for help to find 'serial shoplifters'
Alliance Police are on the lookout for two women they say are making the art of theft their career.
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Alliance police are on the lookout for two women they say are making the art of theft their career.
Police are currently on the lookout for Brenda Haywood and Dodie Bender-Maris.
Both are said to have an extensive history of theft and are currently wanted by multiple agencies across northeast Ohio.
Brenda Haywood has 8 arrest warrants and approximately 66 prior theft convictions. Police say Haywood has a number of aliases including Brenda Tibbles, Bonnie Baker, and Lee Haywood.
Bender-Maris allegedly has five warrants for her arrest and 15 prior convictions for theft.
Bender-Maris is wanted by the Portage County Sheriff's Office, the Summit County Sheriff's Office, Bath Township, Copley Police, and Wadsworth Police.
Haywood is wanted by North Olmstead police, Norwalk police, Wayne County, Stow police, the Summit County Sheriff''s Office, Ontario police, Parma police, and Red Center.
Authorities say the women have been hitting stores like Lowe's, Walmart and Target.
In one photo that Alliance Police have obtained from Walmart video footage Bender-Maris is seen allegedly stealing a flat screen television.
Sergeant Mike Yarian is the Public Information Officer with the Alliance Police Department, "They just walk out of the store with it. They put it in a cart, they walk out of the store nonchalantly like they belong there and if there's nobody checking merchandise at the door they just walk right out with it."
Authorities believe the women fence or sell what they steal.
Police say they were driving a small crossover SUV that appears to be a mid-2000's Mitsubishi Outlander or Subaru Outback, silver-ish in color.
Alliance Police are asking anyone with any information to call 330-821-9140 or leave a tip online at https://www.alliancepolice.com/tip-form.
You can also call your local police department.