Fairfield, NJ: Trio charged in credit card fraud scheme; $1,800 in Target Gift Cards and over $8,000 of Target merchandise recovered
Ricardo Mattis and Schaevaughn Watt and a 17-year-old juvenile were arrested and charged with credit card fraud, intent to commit credit card fraud and conspiracy on Sunday, Aug. 7, according to Chief of Police Anthony Manna. Officer David Lagan was notified by Target security that a large number of gift cards were just purchased at a number of locations in the store using a number of different credit cards. The officer observed the suspects leaving the parking lot and executed the traffic stop. During the course of the investigation, it is alleged that the officer discovered and seized 35 Chase credit cards, all with different names, $1,830 in Target gift cards and $8,257.66 in merchandise purchased at Target to include seven iPads and four Apple watches. newjerseyhills.com

Cedar Falls, IA: Second arrest made in Ulta store thefts
Court records allege Harris has been involved in a stealing from Ulta stores across the Midwest. Harris is accused of entering the Ulta store in Cedar Falls in August 2015 with a woman shortly before noon. They began grabbing products off the shelves, loading them into bags and fleeing. They allegedly took $7,126 worth of merchandise. Authorities said Harris returned to the Cedar Falls store at 1:05 p.m. on May 19 with Brazelton. Later that day they hit another store in for $2,300, the hit the Ulta in Des Moines. wcfcourier.com


Buffalo, NY: $2 Million Bail - Over Alleged Food Stamp Fraud - for Owner of Corner Store
Ahmed Alshami and his family have run the IGA Community Express Mart on Ludington Street for the past five years. After being cited for several issues over the last year, Common Councilmember Rich Fontana has worked recently to have their license removed. Some of the violations they face include selling secondhand merchandise without a license and leaving trash in their yard, but an indictment announced by the Erie County District Attorney's Office Tuesday brought much more serious issues for Alshami, who is now accused of welfare fraud. Acting DA Michael Flaherty says Alshami bought EBT cards from people, typically paying them half of their value in cash. He would then use the food stamps to buy more than $3,800 of goods from big box stores like Tops and Wegmans. twcnews.com 



Chicago: 2 Charged in Nordstrom Designer Purse Theft
Two men were charged Tuesday in the theft of designer purses from a Nordstrom store in the city's River North neighborhood. Mark Conner, 21, and Jahmal Jackson, 22, both of Chicago, were each charged with one count of retail theft over $300 and one count of aggravated battery to a merchant. Police nabbed the men Monday after the theft when they crashed their vehicle a few blocks from the store. abc7chicago.com



Portland, OR: Store owners say tent thefts increasing amid homeless crisis
As Portland's homeless crisis has gotten worse, some business owners say they are seeing a huge increase in people stealing camping gear. Stores say tents in particular are disappearing from shelves so fast, they're having to put them behind the customer service counter. The tent shelf at some Fred Meyer stores are pretty empty these days. A sign was found directed to customers apologizing that tents are now being kept in a secure location. kgw.com