Oneida County, N.Y.'s 2013 leadsonline.com law is helping ID ORC
An Oneida County law that went into effect in 2013 requires second-hand dealers and pawn shops to register the transactions carried out in their stores though the website leadsonline.com. Obviously the main goal would be able to lower crime, and I think this shows one thing - that these people who commit multiple larcenies do it as a business. If you can take down one of these people and get them off the street, it drastically reduces the number of crimes being carried out."

In Rome, the law has led to around 40 arrests since its inception for everything from possession of stolen property to burglary to grand larceny, said Rome police Capt. Timothy Bates. "It has certainly helped us solve crimes, not only burglaries, but others as well," Bates said. "Thefts, retail theft and shoplifting as well as organized retail thieves that work in groups. We have been able to certainly help the retail community as well. We can identify property and in many cases find those responsible to those thefts, which occurs pretty much on a daily basis." uticaod.com

Californian pleads guilty to fraudulent purchases of $114,191 in luxury watches in cross-country scam - actually did $1M to $2M  A California man has admitted traveling across country buying luxury watches by using fraudulent driver's licenses and credit cards. When Phil Nguyen of Garden Grove was arrested last July in Centre County, the president of the New York-based Jewelers' Security Alliance said: This gang did considerably more than $1 million in fraudulent credit transactions, and probably closer to $2 million, spread over dozens of transactions." The alliance had issued alerts about the scam it said involved a "gang of Asian suspects. Nguyen Friday pleaded guilty in U.S. Middle District Court to a wire fraud charge and agreed to make restitution totaling $114,191. Nguyen and others involved in the scheme searched the Internet to identify jewelry stores that were authorized to sell expensive watches, Rocktashel told Judge Malachey Mannion. Between September 2013 and the date of his arrest, Nguyen admitted using fake documentation to buy and return watches in New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Massachusetts, Florida, Michigan and in the Pittsburgh area. pennlive.com

20 Arrested In $83,818.72 - Lowe's Retail Theft/Return Scheme in Western PA  Police have arrested 20 people in connection with an elaborate retail theft and return scheme involving area Lowe's stores. According to police, 21 thefts happened from Feb. 9 through April 15 at several stores in five different counties across Western Pennsylvania. We had a number of individuals that were shoplifting various items from Lowe's stores," said Sgt. Chuck Mascellino, of the Cranberry Police Department. "They would then return them throughout Beaver County and Butler County for the gift cards or cash cards."

In all but one case, two men would enter the store and grab a five-gallon bucket or hand-held shopping basket. The men would walk through the store and load up on tools and other small, valuable items. At that point, they would make their way to the front of the store, where they would wait for employees to be tied up with customers before running outside. The stolen merchandise was then given to other people to return to the store. The value of the returned items were placed onto a Lowe's merchandise credit card, as is store policy for items returned without a receipt. The returns were made only to the Lowe's stores in Center Township, Beaver County, and Cranberry Township, Butler County. It's a larger case because of the dollar amount and the number of people involved," said Sgt. Mascellino. "We have had smaller cases before, but eventually they will be caught." Once the credit cards were obtained, they were sold to several Beaver County pawn shops for a percentage of the value on the card. The total value of the credit cards ended up being $27,780.40. cbslocal.com

Kingsbury, NY man sentenced to 6 years for thefts from Walmart; merchandise seized in a trailer and storage unit  A Kingsbury man who was found with a van loaded with tens of thousands of dollars worth of items that had been stolen from area department stores will serve up to 6 years in state prison for the theft spree. Matthew J. Keeley, 34 of Deer Run, was caught in December in a truck loaded with merchandise that had allegedly been stolen from stores around the region, and that seizure led officers to a storage unit loaded with more ill-gotten televisions, electronics, computers and other items, authorities said. He pleaded guilty to felony criminal possession of stolen property for the items, and agreed to serve a prison term of 3 to 6 years in state prison. That term will run concurrently to a thee-year prison term imposed last month in Saratoga County for a grand larceny conviction that originated at the Wal-Mart store in Wilton last year. Keeley had a prior felony conviction that required a prison sentence for the Wilton and Queensbury cases when he was convicted of an additional felony. He is banned from Wal-Marts around the region because of numerous shoplifting arrests. poststar.com

Sixteen packages of Crest White Strips worth $859.85 stolen, individual arrested for organized retail theft in Mansfield, TX