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A woman behind bars in connection with more than a dozen burglaries in which she allegedly removed the glass from windows of businesses to bypass alarms has been charged in four more incidents around Albuquerque.
Kellie Shugart, 40, is facing four additional charges of commercial burglary, along with multiple counts of larceny, criminal damage to property and conspiracy, in cases that spanned from July to late August.
Shugart was arrested previously in August, and charged in more than a dozen burglaries of nail salons, cafes and other businesses around Albuquerque.
The first incident occurred July 17 when the owner of Mohr Orthodontics reported a break-in through a window, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Security video showed a woman and a man rummaging through drawers inside; they stole a dental drill and a postage machine.
Police said the detective on the case recognized the woman as Shugart from the previous break-ins. The next three burglaries happened over a two-day span and included a nail salon, commercial lighting and homebuilder storefronts – resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars worth of products and equipment.
Shugart was accompanied by one or two other people and, in one instance, carried cleaning supplies to the storefront pretending to be a cleaning service, according to the complaint. In each case, according to police, Shugart removed the weather stripping from the window and used a suction cup to take the window off.
