Brown County

District Court

• A felony theft charge was filed Friday against Melissa Ann Martens, 40, New Ulm. A remote Zoom hearing was set for 8:30 a.m., April 16.

According to court documents, New Ulm Police Patrolman Trevor Kruse met March 21 with the Walmart Asset Protection (AP) Team Lead who said through his investigation, he identified Martens in 26 theft incidents since Jan. 14 at the New Ulm Walmart.

The AP worker said Martens used self-checkouts in each instance and passed many items over the scanner that failed to scan, then placed them in the bagging area. Surveillance video suggested Martens intentionally skipped merchandise scans. The AP worker provided written statements including the date of each instance Martens was identified as the suspect.

The AP worker said Martens used debit and EBT cards March 14, 15 and Feb. 23, 25 and 26. The total amount of stolen merchandise was $1,754.43, according to the AP worker who also provided self-checkout surveillance video for each instance of theft.

Officer Kruse interviewed Martens who said she believed she typically scanned items correctly but sometimes she hears beeps from other customers’ items being scanned and may get confused.