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Claudia Smith yells at customers inside an Oceanside store Wednesday — Charlie Neuman

OCEANSIDE — A bizarre scene unfolded inside a discount store in Oceanside Wednesday afternoon as a 66-year-old white woman, intent on buying things for “poor Mexican women” paid for $5,000 worth of clothing purchased by about 50 women.

The night before, Claudia Smith, who lives in the neighborhood, had walked into the same store, Everything a Deal on Plaza Drive east of College Boulevard, and bought $2,200 worth of clothing for a handful of customers.

The question was why. The answer, very confusing.

At times Wednesday, Smith screamed out “Aye, Aye Aye Aye, Ayeeeeee!” while standing in the store.

“You’d better laugh when I’m around!” she yelled. She loudly proclaimed her love for Mexican women. She used profanities directed at men in a steady stream, then moments later held a toddler in her arms.

After what had happened Tuesday night, word off mouth spread. At 9:30 a.m. Wednesday hundreds of women had arrived at the store and piled shopping carts several feet high with clothing believing the woman would purchase everything.

The crowd Wednesday was eventually limited to about 50 people and 25 stuffed carts. A security guard blocked the entrance as more tried to get inside. The customers waited for hours. It wasn’t until after 4 p.m., after Smith’s $5,000 check had cleared, that each was allowed to purchase $100 worth of clothing.

As many customers left they stopped to hug Smith, then would roll their eyes as she dispensed nonsensical advice and blushed at Smith’s obscene language.

“This is a blessing that wasn’t asked for,” said Rosa Zamora, 27, of Vista, a single mother raising two small children.

“I’m happy she can do this,” said Karen Leon, 24, also of Vista and also a single mother of two. “I’ve never seen this. It’s never happened to me.”

Smith said she lived for many years in San Felipe, Mexico. She told the women and their daughters to stand up to their husbands and fathers who she said do not treat women with respect.

Marco Mitrowke, director of loss prevention for 15 Everything a Deal stores in the county, tried to keep Smith calm throughout the day. He had the police check her out to make sure she was mentally competent.

Smith said she has been “drinking and drugging” since she was 15. She said she was not under the influence Wednesday, but admitted she suffered through a five-month long alcohol and drug blackout not long ago and had entertained suicidal thoughts.

Store manager Paola Garcia said Smith walked into the store Tuesday night and told the handful of customers inside to buy whatever they wanted. There were just a few people there, and they bought everything they could get their hands on. Nothing in the store sells for more than $9.99.

“They were greedy,” Garcia said.

Smith evaded questions about her financial health. She said her credit cards were maxed out, but she drives a Prius and a Lexus. She said she has invested well and recently reaped a financial windfall by selling her mother’s home after she had passed away.

At one point Smith screamed at one woman, “Get out, Get out,” apparently because she wasn’t from Mexico. Almost the next moment she was holding a small child telling the girl how much she loved her.

Pennsylvania woman admits to robbing bank dressed as clown; bozo made bomb threat, swiped $7K

Philip Caulfield
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, June 9th 2011, 10:46 AM

COVINGTON- When Mike Finke opened the garage door of what he thought was the foreclosed condominium he had just purchased for his son, he was stunned at what he found.

Forty-eight pounds of high-grade, medicinal marijuana one would typically find in California “dispensaries” with an estimated valued of $150,000, according to authorities.

It turned out Finke had opened the wrong garage door in the condo complex, but it led authorities to a major drug bust in Northern Kentucky.

On Monday, Benjamin Bingham and Nicholas Mann pleaded not guilty in Kenton Circuit Court to conspiracy to traffic in marijuana.

While Finke and his son, Matthew, declined to speak with a reporter, an account of how the elder Finke stumbled upon the cache of marijuana is outlined in public records and police reports.

Two months ago, Mike Finke purchased the condo in the 900 block of Virginia Lane out of foreclosure for $72,500. It has a sweeping view of the Ohio River and Cincinnati’s skyline, and another condo in the complex is currently on the market for $164,900.

The father was cleaning out the condo on April 16 when he went to the detached garage to see if anything had been left behind by the previous owners. Finke said that, when he put the key in the garage door lock, it would not work. The key became jammed and the lock pulled out of the wall allowing Finke to open the garage door.

When he opened two black duffel bags and a brown suitcase, Finke found the marijuana and called Covington police. It was only after police officers arrived that Finke figured out he was in the wrong garage when another resident walked by and told him.

Investigators got a search warrant for the garage and the corresponding condo. The duffel bags each were filled with 16, one-pound bags of marijuana while the suitcase had eight, one-pound bags of marijuana.

In the kitchen, investigators seized a digital scale, grinder, Tupperware filled with marijuana and a vacuum sealer with heat-sealing bags.

They were the same type of bags used to package most of the marijuana found in the condo. Each one-pound bag found in the condo had the price marked on it. The marijuana was going for between $2,500 and $4,000 per pound.

Investigators searched a bedroom and found Remington rifle with a scope in a black gun case and a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver with more marijuana. There was a box with $41,022 in the closet. Most of money was divided into $5,000 bundles near a ledger that contained names.

The search later led investigators to a safety deposit box at a Chase Bank branch in Bellevue where $107,890 was seized.

In the second-floor master bathroom, investigators opened the top drawer of the cabinet to find an ash tray with several marijuana cigarettes, rolling papers and one marijuana bud.

In the hallway leading to the master bedroom, investigators looked into a red IKEA shopping bag to see two more Tupperware containers with marijuana and plastic bags containing marijuana. A white Adidas outlet store bag contained two one-gallon plastic bags of marijuana and a money counting machine.

As investigators searched the condo, the residents, Bingham and Mann, pulled up in a black Ford Excursion with a woman in the in the passenger seat. The two men, both 30, refused to talk with detectives and were taken to the Kenton County jail where they each posted a $5,000 bond to be released.

The woman in the car said the trio was returning from a day at Keeneland racetrack in Lexington. She said the cash found in the condo was from one of the residents winning $46,000 from a recent gambling junket to Las Vegas.

This is what police recovered from the Covington condominium.

 

Nicholas Mann (right) and Benjamin Bingham leave Kenton District Court after pleading not guilty to charges of trafficking in marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.