Suspects Identified in Picker’s Barn Theft

Union County Sheriff's Office

Press Release

As many of you have probably seen from a recent Facebook post by the Blairsville Picker’s Barn, we had a couple that thought that they could steal from one of the hardworking vendors at the Picker’s Barn and no one would be the wiser. Unfortunately for them, this particular vendor had a really good video surveillance system that caught this couple in the act. At the time of this writing, that video was viewed over 1.4 million times on Facebook.

The details:

 On September 27th, a male and female were walking around the Blairsville Picker’s Barn and began looking at items on a shelf in one of the vendor’s booths. A green canvas cartridge belt (containing fake bullets) caught the eye of these thieves. While no one was looking (or so they thought), the female opened her large purse while the male placed the belt into the purse. Unfortunately for them, the vendor had gotten a motion alert on his surveillance video and was watching the two. When he saw the two steal the belt, the vendor set off an alarm on the camera. What do these geniuses do? The male looks straight at the camera giving us a perfect shot of his face, and then they decide to commit to the theft and continue on out with the belt.

The vendor reported this theft to us on September 28th and the video started making its rounds on Facebook. Our investigators began working on this immediately, and by September 29th, we had identified the two suspects. This was all made possible by the sharing of this video. A local business came forward to us because they had seen this couple in their store. They had surveillance video of the two as well as a driver’s license picture of the female and a license plate number for the vehicle they were driving. Investigators took this information and began conducting checks to confirm this was the same couple. Based on multiple surveillance videos depicting this couple from the businesses, we were able to determine that they were the same people.

Joseph Taaffe, age 62, and Jennifer Taaffe, age 54, of Thonotosassa, FL were identified as the couple and arrest warrants have been obtained for Theft by Shoplifting. Although we have not identified any ties to our area, it is believed they have been staying around the Murphy/Hayesville area for at least the past month. It is our belief that they have been spooked and are now on the run as they were last seen traveling in the Midwest US.

Why all the hoopla over a belt being stolen?

We have received questions as to the status of this case, because all of the traction it has garnered from social media. We also want to highlight that it does not matter how small something may seem to some, the Sheriff’s Office will still investigate it to the best of our ability. This is someone’s livelihood, and these smaller thefts can cause a lot of problems in the future if not addressed. Of course, this cannot be done without the help of our local community. We are grateful to those that shared this video, and thankful to the local business that reached out and provided the information that they did. We are very fortunate to live in an area where we have such a great working relationship with our community. We also applaud the vendor that sounded the alarm (literally) that day as this could have prevented further thefts from other vendors.

Joseph and Jennifer Taaffe have not been arrested at this time and are presumed innocent until tried in a court of law.