PENNSDALE – Three days after Tyrennie Nicole Aunkst allegedly stole a pair of boots and a package of diaper wipes from Target at Lycoming Crossing, Muncy Township Police Chief Christopher McKibben caught up with the 27-year-old woman as she was attempting to hide in the backseat of her mother’s car.

Aunkst, who is on probation and already has two prior shoplifting convictions, was nabbed on April 1 soon after McKibben spotted her mother driving a car near McDonald’s at the Lycoming Mall and noticed a woman “crouched down” in the backseat.

The officer activated his cruiser’s emergency lights and pulled the woman over in front of Fort Muncy Nursery on Lycoming Mall Drive. Sure enough, Aunkst was in the backseat, McKibben said. She allegedly stole merchandise from the department store on March 29, he said.

Two days after the theft, McKibben viewed store video that recorded the shoplifting. He was able to identify Aunkst in the video.

On April 1, but before Aunkst was taken into custody, a constable was looking for her because he had a warrant for her arrest on another matter. The constable went to the woman’s home at 835 Route 442 near Muncy, where she lives with her 47-year-old mother, Sherry Aunkst.

The mother told the constable that she had “not seen her daughter in at least a week and that she had entered (a) rehab facility,” McKibben said. However, store video recorded both women shopping together in Target the day before, he added.

After her daughter was nabbed, Sherry Aunkst admitted to police she lied to the constable about Tyrennie’s whereabouts because “I didn’t want her to go to jail.” Charged with hindering apprehension, Sherry has been sent a summons to appear before District Judge Jon E. Kemp.

When McKibben arrested the daughter, he found a packet of heroin and six needles in the woman’s wallet. She was automatically committed to the Lycoming County Prison on a probation violation.

Arraigned last week before Kemp on charges of felony shoplifting, receiving stolen property, possession of an instrument of crime, flight to avoid apprehension and driving with a suspended license, Aunkst was recommitted in lieu of $45,000 bail.