I had a couple that came into my Walmart once every few weeks during the waning days of COVID. They always came through the least checked exits, such as Lawn and Garden or Automotive. They moved fast, never interacted with employees, and would carry plastic store bags on their way out, so no one would check their receipts. They both wore COVID masks, but the man drove a distinctive red sedan with a piece of cardboard taped into one window.
I got a weird feeling about them after they followed this pattern for a few weeks and reported to our Asset Protection manager. The Asset Protection manager was very happy that I’d tagged them, as they seemed to have a sense of where the camera blind spots were.
What they were doing was grabbing handfuls of Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon cards, stripping the packs open out of sight of the cameras, and stuffing the cards into plastic bags they brought with them. Then, they’d make their getaway.
As I mentioned above, no one would check their receipts, as we were forbidden to check bagged merchandise.
Now that we had them tagged, it was only a matter of time before they showed up again. This time, I saw them from the Lawn and Garden entrance, pull around the building and enter through Automotive. I made a quick call on the radio, alerting the Asset Protection manager, who immediately called the police.
Soon, our parking lot had some police cruisers stationed strategically. However, this is where things go completely off the rails. The pair got into their red sedan, slowly pulled out onto the main street with the cop cars following, and hit the gas. I later read that the couple had led the police on a high-speed chase, going over a hundred miles an hour in a few places, before finally shaking the cops in a small town about thirty miles away.
The Asset Protection manager and police figured out who the couple was, even with their masks, and put out an arrest warrant. They had been hitting three other Walmarts within a thirty-mile radius, just on different days, and had stolen multiple thousands of dollars’ worth of cards.
Turns out that the red sedan wasn’t even the man’s, it was his Mom’s, and when contacted, she reported it stolen to avoid having an abetting charge. The man and woman also had reported a false address, so they were in the wind. But it was just a matter of time before they were caught.
Apparently, the wife in the situation sat down and had a long, hard look at her future with her husband and decided to turn him in. He’s facing about fifteen years in all charges, and she’s working a gas station and making restitution.
As a friend said about this, “D***, Team Rocket took OFF!”
