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4 Atlanta Men Charged in 10 state Home Depot ‘Ticket Switching’ Scheme
A federal grand jury has indicted four metro Atlanta men in an alleged “ticket
switching” scheme that spread over 10 states. These defendants are charged with
participating in a scheme to defraud Home Depot over a period of several years,
in ten states that span as far north as Kentucky and North Carolina, all the way
south to Florida and west to Texas,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian
Yates in a news release. According to Yates, the charges and other information
presented in court: Beginning in at least January 2011, Hatcher, Lynch, and
Oliver entered Home Depot stores in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, and
selected items for purchase. Prior to purchasing the items, they covered the UPC
labels on high-priced merchandise with UPC labels they removed from lower-priced
merchandise, a practice known as “ticket-switching.” The defendants then took
the merchandise to a sales terminal, where they purchased it for the lower
price. After fraudulently purchasing the merchandise, Hatcher, Lynch, and Oliver
removed the lower-priced UPC label, revealing the original, higher-priced UPC
label. Hatcher, Lynch, and Oliver then returned the fraudulently purchased
merchandise to Home Depot without a receipt, in order to obtain refund credit
cards in the amount of the actual, and higher, retail price of the merchandise.
Hatcher, Lynch, and Oliver then sold the refund credit cards to Freeman in
exchange for cash in an amount less than the face value of the refund credit
cards. Freeman used the fraudulently obtained refund credit cards to purchase
merchandise from Home Depot, which he used to stock inventory in two retail
stores that he owns and operates in Atlanta known as “Bargain Wholesale."
(Source
decatur.patch.com)
 3
N.Y's nabbed at Austin airport part of suspected identity theft ring
Three people accused of using identifying information to open credit accounts at
a local department store were arrested as they tried to board a plane back to
New York. George used identifying information from a man living in Brooklyn, New
York to open an account at a Nordstrom Rack store and used the account at three
Nordstrom stores. Police were able to track down the men by obtaining
surveillance video of the car they were using and tracing it to a rental car
company, the document said. A representative at the car company informed police
the car had been returned to the business’s airport location. The men had
several bags from Nordstrom’s containing merchandise matching items purchased
under the fraudulent account. Further investigation revealed several more driver
licenses and credit cards and a hologram overlay, which police say are commonly
used to create fake ID’s. (Source
kxan.co)
 Seattle
trio may be responsible for dozens of smash-and-grabs Suspects in a
cellphone store smash-and-grab burglary attempt tried to hide their faces from
security cameras, but they didn’t hide in videos they posted online. Now, the
trio is behind bars, the suspects could be linked to an interstate crime spree.
The surveillance video was recorded during a burglary attempt at the T-Mobile in
Issaquah early Wednesday morning. The video shows how, within a minute after one
of the burglars smashed the front door with a rock, the flashing lights of an
Issaquah police cruiser can be seen outside. The same three tried to hit the
same store on Saturday but failed. (Source
kirotv.com)
 ‘Prolific’
Tide detergent thief arrested at Safeway in Portland, OR
Detectives with the Gresham Police Department have arrested a 56-year-old man
accused of being a “prolific” thief who mostly told Tide laundry detergent. Paul
Day, 56, was arrested by Detective Brandon Crate Thursday evening after
investigators with Safeway organized retail theft identified Day as the person
who had been stealing the laundry detergent. Safeway investigators had been
tracking Day’s movements in their store, officials said. On Thursday, when Day
returned to one of the Gresham Safeway locations, employees called police after
Day stole 14 bottles of Tide valued at $279, court documents state. Safeway
investigators provided the following timeline of thefts they accuse Day of
committing, and the value of Tide that was stolen. April 17, 2012 – June 10,
2012: $1,524.34 / July 9, 2012 – August 18, 2012: $1,734.31 / April 14 2014 –
April 24, 2014: $1,536.06. Day admitted that he sells the detergent he stole for
money, court documents state. (Source
koin.com)
Female suspect buying thousands in gift cards with stolen credit cards last week
in Barrie, Ontario, Ca.
Two Seattle men arrested on Organized retail theft charges at Walmart
ORC duo busted stealing video games from Target and selling them at Hastings in
College Station, TX
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