Nadia Blackburn and Stephanie Couture face charges for shoplifting, selling stolen goods on eBay

LAKELAND, Fla. - Pushing a stroller, a woman is seen in surveillance video walking into the Brandon Town Center's JCPenney. It shows her walking up to a clothing rack, removing a few items, draping them over her stroller. 

Then, with a little boy in tow, she goes into the dressing room area.  When she comes out, the items are no longer there.

That woman, deputies say, is 9-year-old J.D. Diaz's neighbor.

"A person getting arrested, over there," he described, pointing down his street. "It was crazy."

J.D. was riding his bike Thursday on a quiet street in Lakeland where officials say Nadia Blackburn lives with her husband and two children, a suspended nurse at Bartow Regional Medical Center, recently turned Polk County Jail inmate.

"Running in, 'Mom! Mom! I think somebody just got arrested!'," remembered J.D.'s mom, Heather.  "So, I had to go check it out."

Blackburn is charged with retail grand theft, caught with at least $70,000 worth of shoes and shirts, detectives believe were headed for sale on eBay.

And she had help, detectives say.  Her friend Stephanie is also charged. H er last name, coincidentally, is spelled "Couture"

"I couldn't believe it. I was very shocked," Heather said.  "It's not something that happens in a quiet neighborhood like this."

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, both women admitted to bringing their kids with them on shoplifting sprees across Central Florida, Blackburn admitting she's looted stores  for 11 years.

"Like that, with her hands behind her back," J.D. described, head hanging low.

That's his last memory of Blackburn, as deputies guided her into a patrol car. One of his mother's last memories was a recent garage sale. where she says she's glad she didn't buy anything.

"Yes, I would feel terribly guilty," Heather said.