A Stafford woman was arrested Monday after she went to police to complain about her treatment at a grocery store where she’d been caught shoplifting on video, police said.

Fredericksburg police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said a loss prevention officer at Wegman’s on Carl D. Silver Parkway had been watching the woman for about an hour as she shopped in the store. He’d become suspicious because she was packing her groceries into Wegman’s bags in the shopping cart.

Bledsoe said the video showed the woman allowing her 7-year-old child to push the loaded basket out of the store without the items being paid for. The woman then went back into the store with her 5-year-old child, grabbed a balloon and left.

Loss prevention confronted the woman outside about the more than $400 worth of items she had in the basket. The employee asked her to return to the store and wait for police.

The woman refused, put her children into the vehicle and drove away, leaving the groceries behind. She drove straight to the Fredericksburg Police Department, where she announced she wanted to file a complaint about being accused of shoplifting.

Bledsoe said she told police she was trying to explain her actions but the loss prevention officer wasn’t listening.

Michelle Carrasco, 32, was charged with felony shoplifting and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail under a $3,000 bond; the children were turned over to their father.

Bledsoe said she can’t recall another time a suspect showed up at the police station to complain about a crime that they were caught committing on video.

--Keith Epps