Mother Turns Herself In To RCMP

A Liverpool woman, surprised to learn she was wanted by police, has turned herself in.

Teresa Stewart says her phone blew up Tuesday night after RCMP posted a warrant for her arrest on social media.

The 32-year old was wanted on a charge of Fraud Under $5,000 alleged to have happened in 2019.

Stewart says she was disappointed to see so many strangers comment on her situation.

“People that don’t even know me. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Everybody deserves a second chance, right?”

Stewart admits taking the money from her former employer and says she thought the issue had already been dealt with through an adult diversion program.

“There’s a few things that I should have done that I didn’t do, I guess, like write a letter, go to meetings and stuff like that. But at that time in my life I became a drug addict and because of reasons, I’m not really up to discuss[ing], it was a hard time in my life and I moved forward and here I am.”

Stewart made contact with RCMP immediately and presented herself in person the next day.

After taking to social media to make people aware she had turned herself in, many commenters rallied to support Stewart and wondered why it was taking RCMP so long to pull the post.

RCMP spokesperson Corporal Jennifer Clarke says social media can be a useful tool in tracking people down and from time-to-time investigators will contact their communications officers to ask for help to locate a suspect.

Stewart was concerned the post made her sound dangerous as it warned the public that she should not be approached.

Cpl. Clarke says the language used in the post is standard.

“We don’t want someone going up to the subject of one of those releases saying, hey, the police are looking for you, they have a warrant for you. If an altercation ensued as a result of that conversation, we don’t want that to happen. We simply want people to provide us with information, that’s all.”

Clarke says once the local detachment made her aware Stewart had been in contact, the social media posts were removed.

Stewart says she has turned her life around and has recently given birth to her second son.

She says she will make her court appearance in August to answer the charges but for now, her focus is on raising her two children.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson