A Construction Worker is Charged for Illegal Shopping Spree

A twenty-two-year-old construction worker, Peter Amaud Lara, found himself in hot water after being accused of going on a shopping spree with a stolen Atlantic Bank Debit card. Lara, who lives on Central American Boulevard in Belize City, was charged with card theft and appeared in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court. Lara faced three counts of card theft, accused of using Mía Buller’s lost debit card to swipe over three hundred dollars at various stores on December nineteenth, 2024. He allegedly spent twelve dollars at Chens Store and two hundred and forty dollars at Zen Zen Supermarket. Initially, Lara pleaded guilty to the first two counts but changed his plea to not guilty after learning that Buller wanted to drop the charges. In court, Lara explained that he had been at the police station since Friday and handed over the card when the police arrived. He claimed he didn’t steal the card but got it from someone else who asked him to withdraw cash. Buller, the twenty-one-year-old sales agent, confirmed she had received her money back and didn’t want to proceed with the case, stating that Lara was just following someone else’s instructions. Despite Buller’s request to drop the charges, the Chief Magistrate wasn’t convinced that Lara should be let off the hook so easily. Lara was granted bail set at five thousand dollars with two sureties of two thousand, five hundred dollars each. The prosecutor was instructed to investigate further and report back by Lara’s next court date on February eighteenth, 2025.