A serial supermarket thief, who stole thousands of dollars of merchandise from multiple Target stores using a fraudulent checkout scheme, was arrested as the police found massive stocks of stolen items in his California home.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as 40-year-old Juan Pablo Leal from the city of Adelanto. The arrest came after multiple employees of a Target store located at Bear Valley Road complained to the police about the presence of the suspect at their store on July 30, and stated that they believed that the person in question had been involved in stealing items from their multiple stores.
When the police reached the store, Leal was no longer present there, and the police later found that he had stolen from the Bear Valley Road Store just five days ago.
Reports describe how Leal would put a fake barcode on items of his choice, which allowed him to purchase expensive products at ridiculously low costs repeatedly. It remains unclear how Target figured out his scheme.
After obtaining the search warrant on August 6, police raided Leal’s home and found merchandise worth more than $15,000, including toys, items like cars, Hot Wheels playsets and much more. The Sheriff office also released a photo of his home where thousands of sports cars and other toys could be seen on the floor.
After the arrest, Leal was taken to the High Desert Detention Center but was later released on bail and is set to appear in front of a court later on.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, these stolen items are mostly sold at low prices online on different marketplaces like Facebook, Poshmark, and OfferUp, which also raises their costs on traditional outlets as companies try to make up for their losses.
As the investigation progresses, authorities have urged people with any additional information to reach out to the Apple Valley Sheriff’s Station at 760-240-7400 or Sheriff’s Dispatch by dialing 760-956-5001.
People who want to provide any information anonymously can also dial 1-800-222-8477 to provide tips to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers or submit them at lacrimestoppers.org.
