A California man is to be extradited to Lawrence County by state and federal officials for his participation in a reported interstate shoplifting ring that involves merchandise stolen from Walmarts in Union Township and other nearby counties.
An agent of the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General has charged Zhixiang Chen, 19, of San Gabriel as an accused member of the ring.
Chen currently is in custody in Allegheny County where he is facing related charges.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Lawrence County District Court of Jennifer L. Nicholson, the state attorney general’s agent received information from the Michigan Office of the Attorney General about an organized retail crime ring possibly heading toward Pennsylvania.
Chen is accused of stealing seven retail gift cards, each with a total value range of $10 to $500, from the Walmart on State Street in Union Township, as well as up to 36 cards from stores at six other stores in Beaver Falls, Monaca, Baden and Chippewa in Beaver County, Kittanning in Armstrong County and Natrona Heights and Tarentum in Allegheny County.
He was charged Wednesday in Lawrence County with 11 felonies that include corrupt organizations, conspiracy, organized retail theft, receiving stolen property, retail theft, theft, criminal attempt at theft, conspiracy to commit theft, conspiracy to commit retail theft, alteration of access devices and criminal use of a communication facility, and one misdemeanor charge of possessing instruments of crime, all in connection with the reported thefts at the Union Township store.
In Allegheny County, where he was arrested May 15 by Frazer Township police and is in custody, Chen is facing 21 felonies, including one each of organized retail theft and retail theft, and 18 counts access device altering. He has waived all of those charges to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and is awaiting trial. The judge denied his bail in that case, because in addition to charges in western Pennsylvania, Chen has cases pending in six states and has no local address, according to the court dockets.
Charges have not yet been filed against Chen in Beaver or Armstrong counties, but could be pending. Chen is reported to be a member of a nationwide crime ring traveling the country and removing gift cards from stores, recording their redemption codes, erasing the last two digits and returning the cards back to the stores and on the shelves. When a person buys the card and activates it, Chen and other co-conspirators would be notified and remove money from the card before the purchaser could spend it in a practice called “card draining.”
Investigators learned Chen and co-conspirators also would ship stolen gift cards to other organization members, the court papers state.
An attorney general agent placed a bulletin on law enforcement databases alerting officers in western Pennsylvania and across Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey about the reported theft activities.
The agent learned May 15 Chen’s car had been in western Pennsylvania within the previous 48 hours, the report said, and his car had been seen in the area of numerous Walmart retail stores. He was reported to be in the area of the Walmart Supercenter in Tarentum in Allegheny County. Agents then learned Chen was in custody by Frazier Township police in the store, the report said, and his vehicle was in the parking lot.
A short time before the incident, he was seen on camera in a Walmart choosing new Apple gift cards from the displays and replacing them with tampered ones that he had hidden in his clothing, the court report states. He reportedly then tried to leave the store with 126 Apple gift cards of various denominations worth more than $2,500. A search showed he had them hidden in his jacket and pants pockets, the report states.A search warrant was executed on Chen’s car May 17 and investigators seized about 3,921 Apple gift cards with a maximum potential value of about $921,600, the court papers state. They were contained in bags and containers and included two shipping boxes in the truck that appeared to have been packaged for shipment. The agents also confiscated about $15,000 in cash, a heating pad, glue and other items that could be used to alter the gift cards, the paperwork states.
Walmart discovered eight of its stores in western Pennsylvania were targeted by Chen, in Lawrence, Beaver, Butler, Allegheny and Armstrong counties, the report said. During each incident, still images were identified as Chen.
The state Office of the Attorney General on Monday issued a news release saying dozens of charges have been filed against five other people involved in a significant organized retail theft operation that targeted stores across nine counties spanning a large area in Southeastern and Southcentral Pennsylvania for three months earlier this year.
Five men were charged in Dauphin County with corrupt organizations, organized retail theft, and related crimes.
Between February 28 and May 30, the group allegedly stole over-the-counter medications and other health and beauty products from major retailers including Giant, Weis Markets, and Wegmans in 40 documented incidents across nine counties. including Cumberland, Dauphin, York, Lancaster, Union, Lehigh, Berks, Chester and Northumberland.
The total value of stolen goods is estimated to be worth more than $71,000.
The cases all are being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Organized Retail Crime Unit. All charges are accusations. The defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.
