Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies booked 13 people over the weekend, covering the window from 6 p.m. Friday, July 31, through 6 a.m. Monday, August 3. In that stretch they answered 759 calls for service and conducted 88 traffic stops. Two cases drew particular attention: a Palm Coast woman accused of involving her young daughter in a shoplifting scheme, and a driver pulled over on I-95 after hitting speeds as high as 125 mph.
Palm Coast Target theft
Arrested Saturday, according to the Sheriff’s Office, was a Palm Coast woman investigators say used her 9-year-old daughter to help take merchandise from the Target in Palm Coast.
Saturday evening brought deputies to the State Road 100 store after Target’s asset protection team reported that a woman and her child concealed items and left the building without paying. Deputies identified the woman as Lisa Debenedictis, 48, of Palm Coast.
Surveillance footage was reviewed with store staff. The Sheriff’s Office said the video shows Debenedictis leaving her daughter alone in a cosmetics aisle, where the child gathered products and tucked them into a pink backpack. When Debenedictis came back, deputies say she added another item to the same bag.
They kept moving through the store and later stopped at self-checkout. Deputies said Debenedictis failed to scan a number of items, bagging some while leaving others in the cart unscanned. After that, both walked past the last points of sale and headed out. Asset protection stopped them at the exit, and all merchandise was recovered and returned.
“This mom will never be mother of the year,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “A parent is supposed to teach her kids right from wrong and not how to be a thief. Instead of raising her daughter, she recruited her to steal from retailers. This child did learn a valuable lesson on what happens when you steal. You get arrested and go to jail!”
Debenedictis was charged with petit theft, contributing to the delinquency of a child, and failure to appear on a traffic violation. She was transported to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and held on a $6,500 bond. The Sheriff’s Office said she has two prior theft convictions in Volusia County, including a grand theft case.
I-95 stop at 125 mph
Friday evening, the Sheriff’s Office said Sheriff Rick Staly was driving to a dinner meeting with his wife in an unmarked agency vehicle when a speeding car shot past him on Interstate 95. Staly initiated the stop, and a Palm Coast man was arrested after allegedly reaching speeds of up to 125 mph.
Just before 5 p.m., Staly was traveling south on I-95, just below the State Road 100 exit, when a white 2016 Dodge Challenger with black racing stripes blew by at a high rate of speed. Using a certified speedometer, Staly clocked the car at roughly 115 to 125 mph for close to six miles, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said the driver moved across all three lanes and passed within three to four feet of slower vehicles’ rear bumpers.
With lights and siren activated, Staly pulled the car over just south of Old Dixie Highway, inside Volusia County. The driver, identified as Arul Nayak, 22, of Palm Coast, shut the vehicle off, set the keys on the roof, and was taken into custody without resistance. The Sheriff’s Office said motorists driving by honked as the stop unfolded. Nayak, who the agency said has no prior criminal record, told Staly he had a final pilot’s exam on Saturday and was hoping to be released in time.
“Driving 125 miles per hour and weaving through three lanes of traffic isn’t a mistake, it’s a decision to gamble with everyone else’s life, including the three passengers sitting in his own car,” Staly said. “This wannabe pilot was flying fast and low, but he wasn’t in an airplane, and this wasn’t his final exam.”
Nayak was arrested on charges of willful and wanton reckless driving and violating Florida’s super speeder law. Because the stop concluded just over the county line in Volusia County, he was taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail and later released on bond.
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