Wal-mart shopper arrested on Thankgiving night

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - Escambia County Sheriff's Deputies arrested a woman they said became belligerent when asked to leave store because she skipped in line while shopping on Thanksgiving night.

Antonia Angelena Bennett was charged with trespassing, resisting arrest without violence and disturbing the peace.

The ECSO said Bennett got into an argument with other shoppers after she skipped to the front of a line of customers awaiting the chance to buy a cell phone that didn't go on sale until 10 p.m. at Wal-Mart in Pensacola.

Bennett’s story is different.

She said she was waiting in line when another customer told Wal-Mart employees she was going to start opening cell phones. When the customer began organizing the phones and moving them around, Bennett said she picked one up.

“She snatched that one from my hand; and when I went to pick up another one, she hit me. She just smacked my hand,” said Bennett.

She said she put the item in her cart and left the scene. That’s when she said another customer began yelling she had stolen his phone and chased her through the store before notifying deputies.  

Deputies led her to the front of the store where they asked her to leave.

“The first thing he said to me, he told me to shut up and he screamed it. And it didn’t seem like he wanted to hear anything I had to say,” said Bennett. “From that point, it was just, ‘Get out.’ He said, ‘You can’t come back to Wal-Mart, ever.’ He picked up my purse. He handed it to me, and I asked to speak to a Wal-Mart customer service representative.”

Authorities said Bennett refused to leave and became irate. After she yelled at the deputies, the ECSO said they tried to calm her down or told her she would face arrest.

When she did not calm down, they said that they tried to handcuff the woman, who grabbed a shopping cart. Deputies said they had to pry her hands free. After that, she began to twist and turn to avoid being handcuffed.

“I hadn’t done anything wrong. I hadn’t committed a crime. I never raised my voice. I was never screaming. I was speaking with my hands. I’m just trying to explain what happened, and he grabbed my arm, grabbed it behind my back and that’s when I realized I was under arrest,” said Bennett.

The surveillance video shows deputies pulling Bennett’s hands behind her back, pushing her into a gate and wrestling her to the floor.

Bennett said she was in disbelief she was being arrested and thought it was a misunderstanding.

She said she was even more concerned about her 17-month-old baby in the shopping cart.

Bennett said two deputies left the child unattended while they escorted her to the patrol car.

She said her baby was left in the store with the man who chased her through Wal-Mart and store employees.

Deputies said authorities attended to the child.

Bennett was released on $1,500 bond.

She said she should have been treated as a customer instead of a criminal.