Former Butcher Shop Owner Charged In Meat Theft Case

BERLIN – A former butcher shop owner was formally charged with theft of meat from an Ocean City grocery store last week.

In August, the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) began an investigation into the alleged theft of large quantities of meat from the Acme grocery store in the resort by former Berlin Council member and Berlin Butcher Shop owner Lisa Hall. According to OCPD officials at the time, Hall was suspected of buying cases of various meat products from the Acme in Ocean City and then repackaging it and reselling it retail at her Berlin shop, which violates health code rules that govern food-selling operations.

However, in August it came to light Hall was allegedly picking up meat orders from the Acme store in Ocean City and not paying for them. In those cases, store cashiers, uncertain if Hall had made prior payment arrangements, allowed the butcher shop owner to leave the store with large meat orders without paying for them.

Last week, roughly four months after that investigation began, Hall was formally charged with four counts of theft less than $1,000 and one count of theft scheme from $1,000 to under $10,000. The four theft counts include incident dates of Aug. 14, Aug. 18 and Aug. 19. The theft scheme charge shows a date range from Aug. 14 to Aug. 19. A preliminary hearing date has been set for Jan. 11.

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