Charlotte Cop Arrested For Shoplifting Faces 42 New Charges

CHARLOTTE, NC — One month after Charlotte Police arrested one of their own on seven counts of larceny for shoplifting at a south Charlotte Harris Teeter, the cop now faces 42 new larceny charges, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Wednesday.

CMPD patrol officer Samuel Yaravitz was identified as the suspect in the seven shoplifting cases that spanned from Feb. 13 and May 9, CMPD said May 10. By June 13, however, the number of charges had ballooned to total 49 counts of misdemeanor larceny from shoplifting from five different branches of Harris Teeter grocery stores in Charlotte.

The stores Yaravitz targeted, according to CMPD, were Harris Teeter branches located at 1015 Providence Road, 1217 East Boulevard, 112 South Sharon Amity Road, 6701 Morrison Boulevard and 7036 Brighton Park Drive.

What was he stealing? Steaks, according to a police department source who told the Charlotte Observer that Yaravitz put the meat in a bag before walking out of the store.

Yaravitz was suspended without pay in early May while the case is investigated, however he resigned from the police department on May 14, CMPD said Wednesday. He joined CMPD in June 1999 and was a patrol officer assigned to the Providence Division.

"We are charged with upholding and enforcing the law and will continue to hold ourselves accountable when we violate it," CMPD Chief Kerr Putney said in a statement. "I am disappointed that a member of our department has fallen short of our organization's high standards."

This story has been updated.

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