SPRINGDALE — Police say the recent popularity of extreme couponing led to the theft of 185 newspapers from a Springdale grocery store.
Jamie Vansicker, 34, of Lowell was charged Tuesday with misdemeanor theft of Sunday copies of the Springdale Morning News from the Harps grocery store at Backus Avenue and Thompson Street.
Vansicker confessed to police, saying she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong, according to Detective Jason Renfrow with the Springdale Police Department.
“She didn’t think it was any big deal what she was doing,” Renfrow said. “It’s this couponing craze.”
Vansicker told police she is in an extreme couponing club, Renfrow said.
The theft cost newspaper carriers $231, said Greg Parker, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers single copy manager.
Parker said the company is giving the carriers credit to cover the losses.
Renfrow said felony theft of property typically involves losses of more than $1,000.
Unsold newspapers at sales locations such as Harps are left outside the door for carriers, who return them to Northwest Arkansas Newspapers.
Carriers, who are contractors independent of the newspaper, buy papers at wholesale price and distribute them for a retail profit, said George Loftus, home delivery manager for the newspaper.
Police said Vansicker took the newspapers before carriers could pick them up.
A few dozen papers were stolen each Sunday for six weeks before a newspaper employee staked out the Harps and gave police the license plate information for Vansicker’s car, Parker said.
Loftus said mass Sunday newspaper thefts have become common in the area since extreme couponing became popular. Forty newspapers were stolen Sunday in Harrison.
Loftus said the Springdale newspaper theft is the largest in Northwest Arkansas.
Newspaper employees are pinpointing problem locations to help stifle the theft rate, Parker said.