Being arrested for theft is bad enough. But using your 10-year-old daughter to commit the crime, then abandoning her at Target when she got caught seems to be a lot worse. That is exactly what happened this weekend, and now Tiffany Foster is going to need a good criminal defense lawyer as well as an incredible family law attorney if she hopes to keep custody of her child.

Security cameras at Target captured the woman trying to conceal approximately $600 worth of merchandise under some coats in a shopping cart. She then allegedly instructed her daughter to push the cart outside the store. When security guards stopped the little girl, her mother and another woman took off running.

After questioning the girl, police tracked down Foster at her home and ordered her back to the Target.

Foster claimed that she had no knowledge of the items hidden under the jacket, basically throwing her daughter under the bus for her crime. Thankfully, the little girl had come clean to police already, saying that she and her mother had entered the Target with the intention of shoplifting and had done it before.

In California, shoplifting is a serious crime and can carry with it a jail sentence of up to 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine for petty theft or up to 1 year in jail for grand theft.

With the current state of the economy, shoplifting is becoming more and more prevalent. But the price you pay if caught is never worth the value of the items you take.