Boston woman threatens mall security officer with “disease-ridden needle”
NATICK MA May 1 2019 – A Boston woman told a Natick Mall store security guard she would jab him with a disease-ridden needle when he stopped her for shoplifting on Friday, authorities said.
Police arrested Kim Rogers, 37, after the 3 p.m. incident on Friday, prosecutor Francesca Cone said Monday during Rogers’ Natick District Court arraignment.
On Friday, a Lord & Taylor security guard saw Rogers taking several items off the shelves and filling two bags with stolen items. According to a police report, she took about $1,600 worth of jewelry, fragrances and other items.
As she was leaving the store, the security guard stopped her.
“She told him she had a needle and she had some sort of disease,” Cone said.
The man backed off, and Rogers ran from the store. A witness to the incident called police and said Rogers was at the nearby Crowne Plaza hotel, and police arrested her there. Police also found several items that appeared to be stolen from Victoria’s Secret. Rogers did not have a receipt, according to the police report.
The value of the items from Victoria’s Secret was about $680, according to the police report.
Police initially charged Rogers, of 80 Fayston St., with armed robbery, but Cone asked Judge Jennifer Stark to amend the charge to larceny of property worth more than $1,200. Rogers’ lawyer, Cornelius Dailey, did not oppose the request.
Police also charged Rogers with receiving stolen property worth less than $1,200, assault with a dangerous weapon (needle) and unlawful removal of a theft detection device.
Cone asked Stark to hold Rogers on $2,000 bail. Cone said Rogers has been convicted 13 times and has an open armed robbery case and a second case involving threats out of Roxbury District Court.
Dailey said Rogers is attending unspecified treatment programs in Boston and holding her would affect those programs. He asked Stark to release Rogers.
Stark ordered Rogers held on $2,000 bail. Rogers is due back in court on May 22 for a pretrial conference.
