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Stay up to date with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more

An Olympian was arrested after a debacle at a Walmart self-checkout line.

On March 28, former Olympic athlete Meaggan Pettipiece’s life was turned upside down after she had her ham and asparagus scanned at a Walmart self-checkout machine in Indiana. When security staff noticed she hadn’t scanned the items — valued at $67 — they called the police, even though she had paid $176 for the other groceries.

When she was arrested, she told officers she didn’t know the device hadn’t registered the items, but they made the arrest anyway. When officers searched her purse, they found three disposable vaporizers as well as two unopened blister packs of the anti-nausea drug Zofran, which led to them charging her not only with theft of the unscanned items, but also with possession of marijuana and a controlled substance.

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Following the arrest, which made headlines across the state, Pettipiece resigned from her position as NCAA Division 1 softball coach at Valparaiso University.

However, it later emerged that the device did not register her ham and asparagus when it was scanned. Not only that, the e-cigarettes did not contain nicotine or THC, and the anti-nausea pills did not belong to her either. Instead, they belonged to an assistant coach who reportedly asked the former All-American softball player to carry them for her during a softball game a few days before her arrest.

In early September, Pettipiece’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case, describing the incident from her client’s perspective, providing evidence that the drugs were her assistant’s position, and providing letters of recommendation. On September 19, officials dropped the charges against the athlete after reading the file, but the damage had already been done.

“It is bittersweet,” she told the National Post. “I’m obviously glad the charges were dropped. The sad thing is how much it has damaged my career. It has changed everything in my life.”

“I lost my career, I lost my job, the life I had built for myself, and it was really difficult,” Pettipiece continued, noting that it had been “a living nightmare” when she quit five months earlier.

The former coach – who had participated in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney with the Canadian national team – had to deal with the consequences of his unlawful arrest himself.

“The softball community is a tight-knit group and (the news) went viral,” the Olympian added. “You really learn who the people are that really believe in you and trust you and are really your friends.”

Although the charges were dropped, she expressed fear that the consequences could be irreversible.

“The hard part is how do you make people understand that you’re innocent? And this damage was done for something so ridiculous,” Pettipiece said, adding that she wants to focus on her family. “I’m not sure about the future. Right now I’m going to stay home and focus on my kids. I want to figure out what direction I’m going to go in.”