A woman will have to explain how she came up with more than $900 in cash as she was found with the money in her purse and was alleged to have told her daughter on the phone it was from meth sales, according to Polk County Police.

Donna Clarice Pyles, 48, was already being charged with multiple counts of theft when Dollar General management on Cornelius Road called upon police to take her into custody after they learned of multiple aborted transactions she took cash from the till on.

Management provided police records of all the transactions during her arrest, and after officers reported that she was read her rights, she admitted that customers didn’t know she was aborting the transactions – including her own boyfriend.

The transaction thefts from Dollar General occurred from a time period starting in January and ending this past Friday, March 7, when she was taken into custody.

During a search of her person and possessions, police found two plastic baggies of methamphetamine hiding in her small watch pocket. After police found the drugs, officers let her call her daughter, the report stated.

She “made a spontaneous utterance to her daughter that she was going to jail for having dope on her.” Police added that she told her it was “the dope for sale.”

When police searched her purse and found the $965 inside – most of it in $20 bills – they also found plastic bags and a pipe with suspected meth residue inside.

Pyles tried to change her story about the cash to allow for her daughter to take it, claiming she won it while playing “ding ding” machines at the store across from Walmart, but that would also be illegal since cash prizes are not allowed for electronic gaming machines at convenience stores.

Ultimately Pyles was charged with seven counts of theft by taking from the aborted transactions totaling more than $575, along with drug charges including felonies for possession of methamphetamine and possession with intent, and misdemeanor possession and use of drug-related objects.

Pyles remained in jail on a $17,500 bond as of this posting.