Mom Pleads Not Guilty to Stealing Candy With a Baby

A mother and her ex-boyfriend charged with stealing candy from a drug store and leaving her 1-year-old son behind in a stroller pleaded not guilty today at an arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Stealing Candy from a store is not as easy as kids make it seem. Just ask 23 year old Michelle Calderon.

The young heavy-set mother, Michelle Calderon, 23, appeared in court with multi-colored hair, the right side of her head shaved and a leopard print tattoo on her neck. Detectives said that Calderon, who is homeless, confessed that she planned to sell the candy she stole for a profit.

Police said that Calderon and her ex-boyfriend Darnell Johnson, 26, and Raymond Lebron, 20 walked into the Duane Reade store at 100 Broadway in lower Manhattan on October 7 and shoplifted $179 worth of cough drops, $59 in Wrigley’s gum, $43 of Dentyne gum and $15 worth of Tic Tacs.

Police also said that Johnson served as the “look-out man” while Calderon and Lebron used the stroller, with the one year old child in it, to hide the items. When the store’s security guard confronted the three individuals near the exit, Lebron knocked the security guard to the ground as Calderon pushed the stroller into the security guard in an attempt to escape, leaving the child behind. The whole incident was caught on the store’s security camera.

Hours later, Calderon walked into the 1st Precinct in a disguise in an attempt to get her child. Officers immediately recognized and arrested her.

Calderon and Johnson were due back in court on December 17. Lebron ws slated to make his first appearance in court on December 5.