At least three Matlacha businesses are reeling after a series of shoplifting incidents.

“Vile is the word that comes to mind,” Jennifer Bennett, owner of Island Flair—one of the businesses hit—said. "It wasn’t a mad, it was an anxiety of, ‘I can’t believe someone would actually go through an art store and steal from local artists.’ That was the part that just kept running through my brain.”

Bennett was in her store during the incident, and said that the suspect—a woman in a patterned dress seen on Bennett’s security cameras—stole nearly $500 worth of local artwork from her store alone. One piece, a carved wooden cat statue, was hidden under her dress.

After realizing what had happened, Bennett reached out to other business owners—like Joseph Perry of Matlacha Menagerie, across the stree

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