The 'bored suburban housewife' jailed following a bizarre two-day crime spree during which she stole 28 packages from neighbors' doorsteps has spoken for the first time since starting her prison sentence to reveal that her marriage is over and the real reason behind her actions.

Last month mother-of-two, Melissa Bergman, 30, was convicted on 12 out of 28 counts of theft committed onJuly 27 and 28 of 2017.

She was sentenced to 180 days in jail and began a 30-day stint in Warren County Jail, Ohio in June, with the remainder of her sentence suspended. She will remain on probation for three years following her release.

In an apology posted on Facebook - a condition of her suspended sentence - Bergman said she did not know why she had done what she did but pointed to a cocktail of psychiatric drugs she had been prescribed following a suicide attempt that landed her in a psych ward just days earlier.

Now, in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, army veteran Bergman said, 'I had everything anyone could want. I had money, I had a husband, I had kids, I had a nice house but my husband was very controlling.

Melissa Bergman, 30, of Mason, Ohio, was convicted last month on 12 out of 28 counts of theft committed across July 27 and July 28, 2017

The married mother-of-two was convicted after she stole 28 packages from neighbors' doorsteps in a a bizarre two-day crime spree last year

Bergman (above with estranged husband Stan and their daughter) says her marriage is now over and alleged that her spouse was 'very controlling'

'He didn't want me doing anything other than staying at home and taking care of my children who are two and four.

'I just felt like my life wasn't going anywhere.'

Bergman went onto reveal that she was plagued by flashbacks, anxiety, depression and panic attacks caused by PTSD she claimed was caused by a string of sexual assaults she suffered during her years in the Army.

She said, 'I was 17 years old and the drill sergeant at the time took advantage of his position. I did whatever he asked me to do. I did report it and he went to Court Marshall but everything from that night had disappeared - all the evidence, camera footage, everything had been thrown away.'

Bergman claimed the sergeant got a 'slap on the wrist' and was promoted the following year.

She also said that she had been raped on three occasions by three different men and sexually assaulted numerous times during her years of service. She said she is now recognized by the army as '100 per cent disabled' and 80 per cent of that is PTSD.

DailyMail.com has verified that Bergman was in the army from August 2005 to May 2009 and served in Afghanistan December 2006 to March 2008.

She received several service medals and ribbons but the army would not comment on her claims regarding sexual assault or PTSD.

In his decision last month, Judge D Andrew Batsche was unconvinced by Bergman's attempt to claim insanity as her defense.

Bergman had claimed she 'heard the voice of God telling her to take the packages and give them away to other people' but failed to convince the judge

Bergman (pictured on neighbors' doorstep' expressed remorse, said it 'hurt her' to hurt others and added, 'I've never stolen anything from anybody before in my life.'

The 30-year-old mom has a prior criminal record including her conviction for Grand Larceny in 2010 after she shoplifted goods and sprayed mace in the loss prevention officer's face

Eight months after the thefts Bergman told the forensic psychologist evaluating her that she 'heard the voice of God telling her to take the packages and give them away to other people.'

But Judge Batsche noted, 'She never gave away any items as purportedly instructed to do by God. In fact, she opened the packages, distributed their contents around her home…[and discarded] the packaging in a dumpster a distance away from her residence.'

Today Bergman insists that her PTSD and all the medication she was on 'messed with' her mind.

The attractive 30-year-old expressed remorse, said it 'hurt her' to hurt others and added, 'I've never stolen anything from anybody before in my life.'

But the truth is that Bergman has a criminal record.

She has faced eight criminal charges in North Carolina and other counties. All but one were ultimately dismissed.

In 2010 she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison for Grand Larceny in Virginia after she shoplifted goods and then sprayed mace in the face of the loss prevention officer who tried to stop her from getting away.

Similarly her claims to rehabilitation after the package thefts last summer are somewhat derailed by the fact that, three months later it is claimed she stole three credit cards from a man she had picked up in a hotel bar and had sex with.

Bergman was seen checking herself into court to begin her 30-day stint at Warren County Jail in June

She will remain on probation for three years following her release

She pleaded guilty to the more serious felony charges of ID theft and credit card fraud in March and her case was handed over to the Veterans Court.

Asked about these crimes Bergman initially told DailyMail.com that the charges had been dropped.

When it was pointed out to her that she had in fact taken a guilty plea she maintained that she had only agreed to that as part of the plea deal to see her case transferred to Veterans Court.

She said that on the night she went to that hotel bar, 'My husband turned to me and said, "I hate you, why don't you go kill yourself?"

'That was the last straw. I left the house and went to check myself into a hotel.'

She claims that she met two men who invited her back to their room to party. She ended up going with one, she said, because she thought he was gay.

She claimed that when she shared her tales of marital woe, he felt so moved to help that he booked her several weeks in a hotel (a charge of $2,658.35) to get away from her husband, handed her three credit cards, wrote down his pin number, and told her to 'get what she needed.'

She said she bought gas and baby clothes because her husband refused to pay for such things.

Her victim tells a very different story. Speaking to DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity he said, 'In my opinion she was very calculated. She was looking for some guy who had drunk too much who she could steal from. That was me.

Bergman explained that she 'had it all' but felt unhappy with her life. Above is the couple's $450,000 marital home

'If she hadn't been caught that time I have no doubt she would have done it again. I don't believe this was the first time she had done it and if I hadn't had limits on my cards she'd have run up a bill of $20,000.'

He said that after he had left the bar - so intoxicated a friend who was with him believes he may have been 'roofied' - he went back to his room and passed out.

He claimed that he was woken by Bergman bursting into his room with the demand, 'I want to f***.'

He admitted that she clearly had 'genuine psychological' problems and noted that far from him booking a hotel, she 'bought a ten-day cruise on Travelocity.'

He said, 'She was trying to escape.'

Bergman claimed to have spent $300 on baby clothes and gas. Security camera footage shows her strolling the aisles of Walmart piling her shopping cart high with goods including a large flat-screen TV. The bill came to $2,018.79.

But when pressed by DailyMail.com on the details of that night, Bergman maintained that she is the victim in that felony case though could not explain why a stranger would go to the trouble of reporting a crime and taking her to court if he had indeed given her permission to use his cards.

Whatever the truth, that night was the nail in the coffin for Bergman's ailing marriage.

Her estranged husband Stanley Barre, 32, declined to speak. When DailyMail.com visited the Barre family home in Dayton, Ohio, his mother, Eugenia, described the whole episode as 'painful' and said, 'We just want to move past this as much as possible.

'We don't want anything to do with any of this.'

According to Bergman who last saw her children a month ago she feels 'abandoned and let down,' by the man to whom she was married five years.

But she too is keen to move on.

She said, 'I have a home. We're working on shared custody so I would have the children every other weekend from Friday to Tuesday morning.

'My goal is to get my certification in fitness and nutrition and one day build my own gym and fitness center.'

She said, 'I've never been through such a hard point in my life. I lost everything and I'm starting from the ground up. I feel terrible [about stealing the packages] and there's nothing I can do to take that away but I'm getting the help I need and when I've got the 30 days out of the way I'm just going to get on with my life.'