(USA Today) - A former reality TV personality was arrested by Clarksville Police on Wednesday after she allegedly used fake coupons to obtain more than $2,400 from Toys R Us in November.
Mellie Jeanette Lee, 28, known as Mellie Stanley, on TLC's now defunct "Gypsy Sisters" was charged with seven counts of criminal simulation and booked into the Montgomery County Jail on $350,000 bond.
Lee was known as the black sheep of the show, which followed several Romanichal women from Martinsburg, W.V. The show was a spin off of "My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding," which also featured Lee. "Gypsy Sisters" was canceled in 2015.
According to an arrest warrant, Lee and unnamed co-defendants went to the Clarksville Toys R Us on Nov. 22 and showed a clerk "counterfeit coupons on her phone, with modified bar codes."
The clerk, concerned about the amount of the coupons, questioned Lee, who said a manager had approved the coupons.
Lee had seven coupons scanned, each valued at $300. She used them to purchase gift cards and merchandise valued at $2,412, according to the warrant.
After Lee left the store, the clerk talked to the manager and Toys R Us attempted to cancel the gift cards but they had already been "offloaded onto another form of card," the warrant said.
Lee was identified on video surveillance by loss prevention officers and law enforcement, it said.
It was not her first arrest for allegedly passing forged coupons at Toys R Us.
According to the Associated Press, Lee was arrested in December after she and others used counterfeit coupons to buy $18,000 worth of merchandise at Toys R Us and Babies R Us in October. She was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, theft by deception of $10,000 or more and unlawful access to a computer.
Reach Reporter Stephanie Ingersoll at singersoll@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0267 and on Twitter @StephLeaf
