2 Former Dallas County Deputies Plead Guilty For Looting Home Depot; 1 Gets 45 Days In Jail

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Two former Dallas County Sheriff's deputies accused of looting a tornado-damaged Home Depot in October 2019, pleaded guilty this week to theft.

Joseph Bobadilla and Rebecca Evans were charged with theft of property between $2,500 and $30,000.

Bobadilla, 27, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and four years probation.

Evans, 43, was sentenced to two years probation and will serve no jail time.

An arrest warrant showed Evans was working an off-duty job along with Bobadilla protecting merchandise inside the Home Depot on Forest Lane left exposed after a tornado tore through town in 2019.

Pair Of Dallas County Deputies Arrested For Theft At Home Depot Implicate Each Other

Authorities said Evans would carry small, expensive items out of the store under her uniform without permission and "..took photographs of the stolen items with her cellphone and shared these photographs with him through messaging."

She would then receive a total of $750 from Bobadilla for the stolen goods, which he would take to another Home Depot store and return the merchandise for store credit.

Evans reportedly admitted her role but told investigators, "The thefts were Bobadilla's idea and he instructed her on what merchandise to steal."

A spokesman for the sheriff's office said Bobadilla was hired as a detention service officer in 2014, then was promoted in 2016 and assigned to traffic enforcement.

Evans worked for the sheriff's office for 16 years. She was promoted to a deputy in 2007 after working as a detention service officer in the jail, officials said.

Their indictment mentions that during the time Bobadilla and Evans stole tools and hardware items, the Home Depot was including in an area subject to a declaration of a state of disaster by Governor Greg Abbott.