Attorney General Tim Griffin made the following announcement after investigators from his office’s Special Investigations Division arrested Andrew Sellwood and Robyn Rosamond-Sellwood on charges of Theft by Receiving, a Class B-Felony:
“Yesterday investigators from my Special Investigations Division, alongside the Conway County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and agents from other law enforcement agencies working with an HSI task force, executed a search warrant in the community of Cleveland in Conway County. The search warrant came about after Home Depot’s Corporate Investigations team shared intelligence with my office about a suspected organized retail crime (ORC) scheme targeting Home Depot stores nationwide.
“As part of this ORC scheme, criminals were purchasing items from Home Depot’s website using gift-card information they had obtained from Home Depot stores. The criminals scanned the gift-card information and then returned the gift cards to store displays. After purchasing items online, they then shipped the merchandise they had fraudulently obtained to the address in Cleveland, Arkansas. This operation illegally purchased an estimated $2 million in merchandise from Home Depot fraudulently using more than 6,000 gift cards. They then turned around and sold the merchandise through dozens of accounts on online shopping platforms.
“After executing the search warrant yesterday, we arrested Andrew Sellwood, a British national residing here on an expired visa, and his wife, Robyn Rosumond-Sellwood, an American citizen. They were both charged with felony Theft by Receiving and were booked into the Conway County Jail.
“My investigators and other law enforcement recovered electronic and consumer goods proprietary to Home Depot valued at more than $116,000, with many more items recovered that were tied to other retail outlets. The merchandise recovered filled two large moving trucks, and it is now being stored at a secure location. Two computers and three cell phones were also recovered and will be examined in my office’s digital forensics lab.
“Arresting this couple is a good first step, but we have only scratched the surface when it comes to uncovering the full scope of this organized retail crime operation. Our investigation will continue, and we appreciate the collaboration of HSI and other agencies as we look into evidence that will expand beyond Arkansas’s borders.
“I am grateful to the investigators in my office who have worked tirelessly to bring these criminals to justice, and I am also grateful to Conway County Sheriff Mike Smith, 15th Judicial District Prosecutor Tom Tatum, HSI, and Home Depot’s Corporate Investigations team. This is a big win in our fight against organized retail crime in Arkansas, and this outcome would not have happened without the legislature and the Governor supporting the addition of a dedicated ORC investigator to my Special Investigations Division.”
Original source can be found here.