An Aurora, Ill., woman who Chesterton Police say shoplifted nearly $2,000 in liquid baby formula on four separate occasions from the WiseWay Foods at 1600 Pioneer Trail last spring is facing a sentence of more than four years in the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) after pleading guilty to three felony charges.

Kelly Renee Smith, 31, has pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and one of attempted theft—all Class D felonies punishable by a term of six months to three years—Porter County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Trista Hudson told the Chesterton Tribune last week.

Under a plea agreement not yet endorsed by Porter Circuit Court Mary Harper, Smith would be sentenced to 18 months in the DOC on each count, for a total of four and half years, then serve another 18 months on formal probation, Hudson said. Smith would be eligible for release from the DOC, however, after serving half that sentence or 27 months.

In exchange for Smith’s plea, Hudson said, two additional counts of theft would be dismissed.

Hudson said that each of the three felonies to which Smith has pleaded guilty represent one of her three victims: the Chesterton WiseWay, the Valparaiso WiseWay, and the Valparaiso Town & Country.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15.

Police said that video surveillance tapes show Smith successfully shoplifting Enfamil liquid baby formula, Red Bull, or bottled water on four occasions last spring from the Chesterton WiseWay: on April 27 and 29 and on May 1 and May 11. Smith was undone by her own predictability, though, after a review of those tapes indicated that three of the four incidents occurred between 6 and 8 p.m., police said.

At 6 p.m. May 14 Lt. Dave Cincoski and Cpls. Donald Maloney and Randy Komisarcik began a surveillance operation from positions inside and outside the grocery and at 6:30 p.m. Maloney and Komisarcik saw a woman resembling the suspect enter the store, police said. Cincoski, inside, first observed the suspect pushing a cart containing a blue cooler later discovered to have come from the front of the store. The woman lingered in the baby food aisle, police said, and then moved to the Red Bull aisle.

Cincoski reported that prior to the woman’s arrival in both of those aisles, the Enfamil and the Red Bull displays were stacked full and that on her leaving those aisles the displays were empty, police said.

Cincoski then took a position at the front of the store and subsequently observed the woman coming from the east of the grocery, bypassing the check-out aisles, and exiting without paying, police said.

Cincoski, Maloney, and Komisarcik followed the woman to a vehicle parked in the lot and observed her “hurriedly” throwing the items in the cart into the vehicle’s back seat, police said.

The woman, later identified as Smith, was removed from the vehicle and placed in custody and an inventory of the items in the back seat was taken, police said: the blue cooler, 12 cans of Enfamil and two of Similac baby formula, and 24 four-packs of Red Bull, with a total value of $398.61.

Smith advised police that all of those items had been taken that day from the WiseWay, that she had not paid for them, and that she had not intended to pay for them.

In addition, Smith admitted to the theft of items from both the Valparaiso WiseWay and Town & Country stores and Valparaiso Police were contacted to conduct their own investigation, police said.

“During questioning,” police said, “Kelly Smith advised that although she is pregnant, she has a $200 per day heroin habit. She was found to have $410 in U.S. currency in her wallet, but stated that she intended to commit the theft in order to sell on the streets in Chicago for cash.”

Smith did give birth to a baby while being held at the Porter County Jail, Hudson said, after being temporarily released to a medical facility. She remains in custody at PCJ.