All across the country carrying a smart phone is like carrying cash in your hands. Many thieves consider a smart phone as easy to steal as snatching a purse from an unsuspected woman. Lost and stolen phones are costing the American consumer millions of dollar a year according to some recent research and according to some news smart phone theft is happening at stores as well.
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Six Apple Store employees nabbed in iPhone theft ring
Sometimes it is those on the inside that you need to be worried about the most. In Fort Lauderdale, six Apple Store employees were snagged by the cops, as law enforcement smashed an iPhone theft ring that worked out of an Apple Store at the tony Galleria Mall. The six worked together to rip off the store out of 600 iPhones, valued at half a million dollars.
The scheme involved a number of thieves who wandered into the Apple Store, pretending to be customers. In the store, these “customers” would be helped by one of the six employees in on the scam, who would exchange a stolen iPhone for a brand new unit. The Apple Store employees who helped the transactions go through, were paid between $45 and $75 per unit for facilitating the exchange.
The cops arrested former Apple Store employees Devon Persad, Daniel Michael Scotti, Adam Alvarez, Anthony Joseph Tranchida, Sadia A. Dandia, and Otis Jerrell Ferguson. A seventh person arrested was Best Buy Mobile employee Sean Flynn. Flynn provided a list of serial numbers from smartphones on the shelves at Best Buy Mobile, to the other criminals. These numbers were used on the new iPhone models stolen from the Apple Store.
The cops are looking to identify those who brought the stolen phones into the Apple Store. They are also still looking to find the buyers of the new units that the stolen phones were exchanged for. A Broward Country prosecutor says that the phones were probably sold overseas.
Ex-Fairfax Deputy Headed To Trial On Shoplifting Charges
The case of the Fairfax County deputy charged with shoplifting at the Leesburg Target store will go to trial.
Robert H. Palmer Jr., 50, of Leesburg, appeared in Loudoun General District Court Tuesday morning. Judge J. Frank Buttery Jr. set a trial date for Sept. 23.
Palmer has been charged with two counts of petit larceny under $200, a Class 1 misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
The case, first reported in May, gained national attention after Dallas Northington told The Washington Post he was fired as an assets protection specialist for Target after reporting two incidents of apparent shoplifting in which the suspect shown on surveillance tape was recognized by his superiors as Palmer, who’s worked for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office for 20 years.
Northington said he filed a complaint with the Leesburg Police Department as he did routinely in such cases. However, days later he was fired, told by his managers at Target that he had not followed company procedures.
Following the publication of Northington’s story, the Leesburg Police Department released a statement July 14 about its involvement in the case. According to the department, the initial complaint was filed at approximately 11 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. “The report was documented however, the reporting loss prevention officer did not witness the actual theft,” it said. During that investigation, “the individual involved in the alleged theft was positively identified as a Fairfax Sheriff’s Office employee.” On May 30, Leesburg investigators notified members of the Fairfax sheriff’s office about the report.
There the case stalled.
Mother leaves kids in store after shoplifting
Published on Aug 15, 2014
DELAND, Fla. (WKRC) — A Florida mother’s attempt at shoplifting ended with her running from police and leaving her children behind.
Deland, Florida police said Rebecca Stoltz went shopping at Wal-Mart with her 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old stepdaughter. When she allegedly tried stealing $44 of clothes, she got caught by security. In the panic of getting caught, police said Stoltz ran from the store and left her children behind.
Other parents shopping at the store said they were outraged.
Police said store security found the girls and they were both, “Clearly distressed and very emotional and both were crying.” Investigators said Stoltz knew what she did because she told a friend to go pick the children up from the store.
Police eventually arrested Stoltz who faces child abuse charges.
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