BENTONVILLE -- Police nabbed a woman late last month carrying mail and packages that belonged to at least 73 people, according to court records.
Eleanor Francis Repper, 34, of Fayetteville was held in the Benton County jail on Thursday in lieu of $10,000 bond. She was arrested Dec. 27 on 73 counts of breaking or entering, three counts of theft of property, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A neighbor observed her going through mailboxes in Rogers, according to documents.
Prosecutors have not filed formal charges against Repper.
Her arrest stems from a report of a suspicious person police received at 9:05 a.m. Dec. 27 that concerned a person stopping her car and going through mailboxes on West Rozell Street, according to court documents.
Eric Cline, a Rogers police officer, saw a woman throwing several cardboard packages, which appeared to be from Amazon, into a trash can, according to a probable-cause affidavit.
Repper told Cline she was throwing away some of her mail, the affidavit states. Cline noticed numerous other packages inside Repper's vehicle, according to court documents.
Cline told Repper about a witness seeing a person checking mailboxes. Repper admitted she looked through mailboxes and told the officer she was going through a "rough time," according to the affidavit. She also admitted the mail inside her car did not belong to her, according to the affidavit.
Police recovered the packages from the trash can, and her car was taken to the Police Department, according to court documents.
Repper told detectives she was stealing mail and packages from several locations in Northwest Arkansas, according to court documents.
She admitted she had multiple credit cards, gift cards and checks that she had stolen from the mail, according to the affidavit. She claimed she kept the credit cards and checks because she did not want them to fall into the wrong hands, according to the affidavit.
Repper said she did not give any of the stolen items to her children, but detectives learned after a search that her children received stolen property, according to the affidavit.
Detectives recovered stolen items from her children including a Leap Frog gaming system, a King of Tokyo board game, a Monopoly card game, a Harry's shave set and a Pokemon DVD collection set, according to the affidavit.
Detectives searched Repper's vehicle and found merchandise in its original packaging, Amazon packaging and large amounts of mail not addressed to Repper, according to the affidavit.
Repper told police they recovered about 75 percent of the total mail she took. She had scattered the other mail throughout the area, according to the affidavit. Repper could not remember where she dumped the mail, telling police she was usually high on drugs when she committed the crimes.
Repper's arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 4 in Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green's courtroom.
Metro on 01/04/2019