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Police: Sisters Stole $15,000 Worth Of Goods From Dollar General

POSTED: 5:50 pm EST March 15, 2006
UPDATED: 6:26 pm EST March 15, 2006

The following report by Channel 4 Action News reporter Jennifer Miele first aired on Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m. on March 15, 2006.

Police said the sisters of an employee at a local Dollar General took carts, bins and garbage bags full of items out of the store without paying for them.

According to police, 40-year-old Jami Freedline worked as a clerk at the Dollar General in North Apollo.

For six of the 12 months she worked there, police said, she helped her sisters get away with $15,000 worth of goods.

In surveillance video, Freeline allegedly rings up her 37-year-old sister, Carol Barnes. Police said she doesn't scan any of the items, and that video shows a storage tub in the cart filled with Dollar General goods that Barnes and her other sister, 44-year-old Joni Kolegraf, stockpiled.

Police said the items included food, clothes and thousands of dollars worth of Christmas decorations.

None of the sisters answered when Channel 4 Action News tried reaching them for comment.

But their neighbors said they are shocked.

The Dollar General Corporation did not return calls for comment, but the police report said mangers there suspected Freedline was up to something. So, they installed the camera, which they said caught crimes dozens of times on tape.

Two of the sisters have cooperated with police and even returned some the decorations.

Police said Carol Barnes denied she was part of the scheme.

The women are charged with felony retail theft and conspiracy, among other things.

Freedline said she was just trying to help her sisters because money was tight.

Police said some items were essentials the women kept, and others they gave as gifts.
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