Photo of Andrea Milfort. By. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT
ST. THOMAS — A woman who said that she accidentally picked up the wrong bag at a gentleman's club is facing felony larceny charges in court.
On Monday, a dancer at Tootsy's Gentlemen's Club went to police and reported that her bag had been stolen. She said she placed her bag down on a table next to where she was entertaining a client, only to discover the item missing when she had finished her dance.
According to court documents, the club employee said she immediately reported the incident to her boss, who reviewed the security camera footage and allowed her to view it as well. The video reportedly showed a woman snatching the bag – which contained the dancer's phone, cash, and personal effects – from the table approximately 30 minutes after it had been placed there.
The dancer said that she was later able to trace her phone to the vicinity of the Cyril E. King Airport, and that the club's security told her that the woman and her friends had been picked up from Tootsy's by a taxi driver which the security officer knew.
That taxi driver said he dropped the woman, later identified as Andrea Milfort, at the Lindberg Bay Hotel, along with her male companion.
When officers learned that Milfort was scheduled to leave the island on Tuesday January 23, they returned to the hotel that morning and intercepted her. She was then transported to the VIPD's Criminal Investigation Bureau, where she told officers that she had inadvertently taken the bag while intoxicated.
Milfort further said that after leaving Tootsy's, the taxi driver first stopped at Margaritaville to drop off some friends she had met during her stay. While there, she said she realized that the bag she had was not hers, and so she told her boyfriend and subsequently left the bag on the ground at the resort before leaving for her own hotel.
While Milfort was being booked, her boyfriend called to indicate that he had found the bag, and some time later he brought the item into the CIB. While Milfort initially told police that she did not open the bag and thus did not know what was in it, her boyfriend said that the pair had indeed opened the bag to check its contents, but that they did not remove anything before abandoning it at Margaritaville.
Milfort was arrested and charged with grand larceny as well as petit larceny, and remanded into custody to await her first court appearance.
In court on Wednesday, Magistrate Simone VanHolten-Turnbull found probable cause to uphold both charges against Milfort, and set bail at $20,000 with a 10 percent provision. Once released, Milfort will be restricted to the St. Thomas/St. John/Water Island jurisdiction unless she receives written permission to travel, and must contact the probation office twice a week by telephone. She must also remain employed or, if terminated, immediately commence a weekly search for new work.
Milfort's next court appearance is scheduled for February 9.
