NY pair sentenced in Erie County in Bath & Body Works theft spree

Listen to this article

(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect) – A New York woman said she wasn’t thinking right when an Erie County judge on May 29 asked her why she targeted Bath & Body Works stores in a 2024 theft spree authorities said went on for nine months.

Her accomplice told Judge David Ridge he was in a weird state of mind and was on drugs.

The crime spree Emonee Q. Bradley and Jovante M. Richardson admitted to through guilty pleas entered in March earned the pair on May 29 jail sentences, periods of probation and a $13,211 bill to make good on what was stolen from Bath & Body Works locations in the Millcreek Mall in Millcreek Township and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.

Ridge pointed out to both in handing down the sentences that, even though Bath & Body Works is a large company, the thefts were no different than stealing more than $13,000 from a person on the street.

Ridge sentenced Bradley and Richardson to six to 23 months in prison on their guilty pleas to a third-degree felony count of organized retail theft, and to three years of probation consecutive to the prison terms on their guilty pleas to a third-degree felony count of retail theft.

Ridge told Bradley, 26, of Cheektowaga, New York, that he would consider having her placed on electronic monitoring after three months in jail, noting her lack of a prior criminal record. He told Richardson, 32, of Buffalo, that he would consider having him placed on electronic monitoring after serving five months in jail, noting Richardson’s prior criminal record.

Ridge additionally ordered the two to pay the $13,211 in restitution, and he barred them from all Bath & Body Works stores.

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General initially charged Bradley and Richardson in May 2025, accusing them of stealing from Bath & Body Works stores in Millcreek Township, Grove City, Pittsburgh and Cranberry Township in Venango County, Pennsylvania, on July 29. Investigators wrote in the initial criminal complaints that nearly $3,800 in merchandise was stolen from those four stores.

According to information in the complaints, Millcreek police initially investigated the theft at the mall, where a little more than $1,000 in merchandise was taken, and learned that thefts happened at the other Bath & Body Works stores on July 29. Police obtained video of the suspects and photos of a vehicle possibly linked to them, and through video and other information identified Bradley and Richardson as the suspects.

The case against Bradley and Richardson expanded after the initial charges were filed, according to the Office of Attorney General.