Two New York men are accused of using stolen customer information at self-checkout kiosks to net nearly $100,000 at Lowe\u2019s home improvement stores spanning eight statewide counties.<\/p>\n
Jose Gomez, 48, and Ysaias Arajuo, 53, both of Middletown, each are charged with felony counts of theft; corrupt organizations; organized retail theft; and related offenses. <\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday<\/a> on Thursday announced Gomez\u2019s arrest. Araju remains at large with a warrant filed for his arrest.<\/p>\n Authorities said the co-defendants were involved in a total of at least 56 retail thefts at 18 Lowe\u2019s stores spanning Northampton and Lehigh counties, as well as neighboring Bucks, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Pike counties. <\/p>\n In the scheme, investigators learned Gomez and Arajuo allegedly utilized self-check kiosks at the stores to make purchases using cellphones, which were linked to stolen customer accounts, authorities said.<\/p>\n When customers whose accounts were stolen received bills with fraudulent charges, they disputed the purchases with their banks that issued the Lowe\u2019s cards. The bank declined payment to Lowe\u2019s, leaving the company to absorb the cost of the thefts.<\/p>\n The total amount of loss to Lowe\u2019s is $99,689, the state AG\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n Sunday in a statement praised the quick work of law enforcement in nabbing the suspects.<\/p>\n \u201cThese defendants orchestrated a sophisticated scheme that targeted unsuspecting customers, as well as Lowe\u2019s businesses across numerous counties,\u201d he stated. \u201cOrganized retail theft impacts consumers who will be forced to pay higher prices for goods as businesses raise prices to recover losses.\u201d<\/p>\n The Warrington Township Police Department assisted in the investigation with the Pennsylvania Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Unit. The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Noelle Wilkinson of that unit.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two New York men are accused of using stolen customer information at self-checkout kiosks to net nearly $100,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,10542,4549,10543,1126,10544,10545,10528],"class_list":["post-13934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-brand","tag-branding","tag-buckhorn-plaza-shopping-center","tag-company","tag-home-improvement-store","tag-logos","tag-signs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}