GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Meijer is out more than $800,000 due to an organized retail crime scheme lasting several years in Michigan, according to court records.
Court documents name nine individuals as being part of the criminal enterprise. Criminal cases were filed against eight of them, including Christine Day, Travis Gale, Travis Plotts, Kristin Ragen, Thomas Ragen, Efrain Tejada, Elizabeth Tejada and Sara Tejada. Many of them are either married, related or are known associates of one another, police said.
Most have already been sentenced on a felony charge of conducting criminal enterprise. Gale, who pleaded in to the crime, was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday morning, but it was adjourned until a later date.
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said he has seen a rise in large groups working together to commit retail crime.
“It’s amazing how they find unique ways to steal,” Becker said. “It’s not just walking into stores and taking items. They come up with creative ways to steal.”
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According to court records, in early 2022, Meijer discovered a loss of $805,000 due to counterfeit coupon barcodes. The documents filed in Gale’s case show that transaction data and surveillance cameras revealed he used the fraudulent barcodes at the Meijer on Century Center Street in Grandville and the one on Wilson Avenue NW in Walker. When detectives searched Gale’s home, they say they found Visa and MasterCard gift cards that were fraudulently obtained from Meijer.
While investigators say the scheme dates back to at least 2018, Meijer lost $134,000 in Michigan in less than two months in early 2022 alone, according to court records.
“Travis Gale was observed via CCTV or transaction data participating in 90 transactions of roughly $9,000 in value during that span of time alone,” a probable cause affidavit reads.
News 8 reached out to Meijer for comment on Wednesday morning and has not yet heard back.
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Amy Drumm, the senior vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Retailers Association, said retailers have seen more fraud over the last several years. She said criminals have gotten more aggressive and even attacked employees.
“We see on average organized retail crime costs retailers $700,000 per $1 billion in sales,” she said. “One off-case of $800,000 may sound like a smaller number for a larger company, but they all add up. This is not the only case that’s happening, there’s a lot of examples.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel launched the FORCE team and Organized Retail Crime Unit in April 2023. It’s a task force comprised of members of Nessel’s office, Michigan State Police detective troopers and an FBI agent. In the group’s first year, it charged 41 defendants in 13 cases resulting in nearly $13 million in losses to Michigan businesses, Drumm said.
“Certainly, (retail fraud) has an impact potentially on prices and on your ability to shop in the stores as we’ve seen more security measures be implemented,” Drumm said. “That means your experience shopping the store, touching items, looking at items can be impacted as retailers try to take measures to prevent theft by locking things up.”
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Advocates say retail crime can especially hurt smaller businesses that may have fewer security measures and ways to track down the criminals.
“We’ve also seen stores close,” Drumm said.
It can also affect shoppers who can end up paying more at the grocery store as retailers try to make up for the loss.
“Whether it’s the mom-and-pop store or the big one, they raise prices,” Becker said. “They take a look at and say, ‘Jeez, we’re losing a lot of money.’
Drumm added that retailers may have to raise prices when they add additional security measures to prevent theft.
“Those costs all add up,” Drumm said. “A lot of retailers operate on razor-thin margins. If you look at grocery stores in particular, they have a 1.6% profit margin, which means as costs go up, you tend to see those prices are then forced to be raised a little bit here and there to make up that difference.”
It’s another blow to consumers who are already dealing with higher prices at the grocery store.
“When you’re already facing inflationary pressure, that’s a huge issue,” Prosecutor Becker said.
Though retail fraud convicts are often ordered at sentencing to pay restitution to their victims, Becker said it’s rare for all of that money to get returned. For example, a $500,000 restitution order can result in the criminal paying between $10 and $20 a month, depending on their financial situation.
“People are not stealing because they’re well off and they’ve got a lot of money,” Becker said. “If they go to prison, they don’t have a lot to pay there. A restitution order will stick with them for the rest of their life, so if they hit the lotto, a company can collect.”
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