This post reveals, what I believe to be, one of the significant achievements in my career. However, this is one I could actually take little credit for since the details and coordination of this little “sting operation” was from the assistance of one of the detectives who layed out the rules of evidence and what I needed to do in order to be successful.
I must also apologize that this post is somewhat lengthy, but I believe all the details in this story will help you understand the process and will allow you to appreciate what took place.
Another thing, the events leading up to the successful prosecution of a grocery store cashier sort of fell into my lap, which some would think it happenstance (although I personally believe all things happen for a reason). And this may not be something in which a street officer could get away with investigating today depending on the policies of their department. As a matter of fact, the detective sergeant at the time, when he found out what I had done, was a little miffed it wasn’t given to one of his investigators to work. I guess he felt like I stole some glory belonging to his department. But it was something I could not have given up. As a matter of fact, once the operation had been completed, I was speaking to the Chief in his office about something else when I brought this event up. He was extremely pleased. More about his reaction later.
So, this thing started when I went into a major chain grocery store to retrieve over the counter migrane medicine for one of the dispatchers who asked me to pick it up for her. As I was down the medicine aisle, the assistant manager ran up to me and asked if I was going to be in the store for a while. I asked him if I needed to be. He replied, yes, that the manager is watching someone switching price tags on some packages of shrimp. I said, okay, I will stay here in the aisle until summoned. The assistant manager, looking to the front of the store, said no, she just walked out. I hurriedly went to the doors when I noticed the manager excorting a young lady in. It was then I noticed it was Marcy (not her real name), someone I was acquainted with.
Marcy was what I considered to be one of my unofficial informants. She was in her early twenties and lived on a rough street in the city. She would occasionally call and ask for me when she had information. I say “unofficial” because when I informed her that she could go to city hall and register to be an official informant and actually be paid for information leading to the arrest of criminals, she stated she wasn’t interested. She just wanted to help me put criminals in jail and make her neighborhood safe. There was also another reason she always asked for me. I am not really sure, but I believe I assisted her family in finding her adult brother who was suffering from mental illness and showed them how they could get him the help he needed. I just took it as doing my job, but when this was taking place, she was around 17 and she never forgot some kindness shown from a police officer to her family. She felt like reciprocating the kindness in a way she could.
But now she is being walked back to the manager’s officer for committing larceny. When she saw me, she started to cry and apologize. I told her to we would talk when we got in the office. At that moment, I felt like a dad being disappointed with my own child.
Her crime of switching tags on items is a unique form of larceny. The difference in regular shoplifting and switching tags is that with shoplifting, you really need to make sure the offender walks past all possible points of sale. In other words, as the offender is walking out the door, he must not have any way of paying for his or her concealed items at the point he or she can be confronted by loss prevention or a manager. Switching tags is different in that the crime is committed at the time the tags are switched. If I observed an offender switching tags, I could then there and then place the offender under arrest. Now, this is Virginia law and at the time this event occurred.
So, when we sat down I told Marcy I would have to listen to what the manager said before we could talk and to be patient and not interrupt. The manager gave the particulars in that he was watching her at the seafood counter through a parting of shelves in the aisle where she could not see him. She then looked around to see if anyone was watching and she pulled and stuck the price tag of a small package of shrimp and put it on the large one. She picked up the large package of shrimp and walked to the front. She then stopped in front of the registers and it appeared she was looking for someone or something at the registers that were open. After a few minutes of doing that, she placed the package down on a shelf and walked out of the store without it. But, as I said before, she committed the crime inside of the store so it was still prosecutable.
I told Marcy that I would need to advise her of her Miranda Warnings since there is probable cause for her arrest. She told me that it was unnecessary, that she knew them, but I did so anyway. At this time she was in tears and apologized for disappointing me. She said that things were getting bad financially so a friend of hers told her of a cashier at the grocery store that will “slide merchandise” (the act of a cashier feigning the scanning of an item and placing it in the bags without actually ringing them up–sometimes, as in this incident, the items would be placed on the bottom rung of the cart and would be taken out without paying for it.) for twenty dollars. So, ashamedly, she stated that she would place meat and liquor on the bottom rung and the cashier would see them. She would then tell her “You know the price” and she would give her a twenty dollar bill. She would also have a few items on the belt that she would pay for out of another twenty dollar bill to make the transaction look legit. She would then take the items to the shot houses and an actual “convenience store” in the neighborhood that was out of a house and get paid for them. I will be presenting that story at a later date of one such place entitled something like, ” How A Knock And Talk Took On A Life Of Its Own”. Marcy would then get paid by these “entepreneurs” for bringing these items to sell to those in the neighborhood. She told me the reason she didn’t take the shrimp to the register is because she discovered “the” cashier wasn’t working then. She told me that any cashier paying attention would have noticed something wrong in the price and would have alerted management.
I asked her why she was telling me all this, and she said because she felt bad in doing it and that she just got put on public assistance and she doesn’t have to do this anymore. She was actually glad she got caught. I told her that even though we had this professional relationship, I couldn’t over look this and would have to arrest her if the manager is requesting I do. She told me she understood.
While I was confiming and taking down all of her identification information for my report, I asked her if she would reveal the name of “the” cashier. When she told me the name, the manager excitedly asked me, “Officer Cravey, can I see you outside of the office for a moment?” When we walked out of the office, and out of earshot from anyone, he told me that he had got that particular cashier doing this twice before. He believed he had enough evidence for at least a termination, if not also a prosecution, but she told him and the district manager that if they did anything to her, she had an uncle who was an attorney for the NAACP and she would sue them for racial discrimination and own this store. The district manager was not a mentally confident individual and out of baseless fear told the manager of the store to back off because he felt they did not have enough evidence to risk a lawsuit, even though when the manager gave me the specifics of the events, I told him they had more than enough. The manager agreed and lamented that his district manager actually wants to catch her red-handed, and not by what people saw or what they viewed on a camera only. I asked him if he wanted to catch her red-handed and he exclaimed, “Oh yes please!!” That’s where this event took off. It was then, I realized my error in forgetting the migrane medication that I was there to get, so I excused myself, went to the aisle and walked up and purchased it. I then called for my zone partner to come and deliver it to the dispatcher.
I explained to the manager what the professional relationship consisted of between me and the girl and told him that if he wanted to have her arrested, I would do that. However, if he thought it beneficial for her to help him in catching this embezzler, he may want to think of giving her a break on the shrimp. He thought about it for a minute and said, “Well, we still have the shrimp and it was put back into the seafood department without it spoiling, so no loss. Okay, if she helps us, I will give her a break on the stealing.” I then corrected him, “No, it cannot be conditional. You must first make the decision to release her before we ask her for her help. Otherwise it will look like extortion or blackmail, and it will not be viewed too well in the courts.” He said, “Still there is no loss. So okay.”
We went back into the office, I sat down with Marcy and told her that, “I will still have to complete my report but it is up to the manager to decide what would happen to you. And at this time, taking in consideration that they have experienced no loss of product, and that you didn’t go through the line, he has decided for me to release you with a warning.” At that time, she broke out into tears, and cried, “Oh, Officer Cravey, thank you so much, I’ll never do this again!” I corrected her, “No, Marcy, don’t thank me. This is not my decision. You need to thank the manager.” She then turned her attention to the manager, “Sir, I am so sorry. Thank you so much. Look, if there’s anything I could do for you…” I interrupted, “As a matter of fact, Marcy…”
So operation “To Catch An Embezzler” is now underway. The first thing I had to make Marcy understand was that she was under no obligation to help the manager and that she could still walk free with no consequences if she did not feel safe or right betraying a friend. She then corrected me, “I ain’t friends with that b#&@%! I hate her. But she was the only one I knew where I could do what I’ve done.” Throughout the entire operation, I constantly, at every step of the event I reminded her she was under no obligation and that she could still walk away. At one point she got angry at me and told me she wanted to and to stop talking her out of it. She told me that she wanted to make up for all the bad she did. You will find out later in this that my “nagging her to quit” paid off in court.
So, that day we started planning the sting. The manager found out and let us know the days she would be working. We worked out a day that Marcy could be there. The manager would put the cashier on the register with the best clear camera view pointing straight down to catch the entire register area including where the customer would stand putting the groceries on the belt and paying for them. On the day of, the manager would open up the back door to the store where it led into a conference room. It was imperative that no one witnessed Marcy with us, so the manager had his front end manager to stand at the door at the inside entrance to the room and guard it. I asked Marcy what she would usually have “slidden” past the check out, and she told me meat and liquor. I told her that this time it would just be meat, because I did not want to have to deal with all the red tape of the ABC board. She said there were times she only stole meat. I asked her how much. She would tell me all the meat she would steal and it ended up being over $400 worth, which at that time was enough for a felony theft (the Commonwealth of Virginia has finally come to realize that the $200.00 it had as a threshold needed to be updated since it is very difficult to steal an amount under that unless you were to steal just a couple of things, so they made it now $500.00). So I gave the list of things she would usually steal to the manager to relay it to the meat manager, the only other one beside the front end manager that knew of this operation. The meat manager got a cart and placed the usual amount taken on the bottom rung. It was imperative that Marcy not touch the meat. She would later go and retrieve the cart at the meat counter.
The manager brought two twenty dollar bills and I it photographed them and took down their serial numbers. Both twenties would be retrieved from the cashier’s till and from under the coupon dispenser and be packaged as evidentiary items for court. The manager also brought with him a letter stating that she was under no obligation to participate in this operation. To Marcy’s chagrin, I had to again emphasize she can walk away. It was the first time she ever told me to “Shut the f$#% up!!” (In spite of the calm and quiet way in which she said it, I still would not dare bring it up again.) It was signed by the manager. It also detailed that she could not be held accountable for stealing while in participating in this endeavor. She received a copy of it and placed it in her purse.
I then gave her last minute instructions. I wanted to make sure she knew what she needed to do for this to be a success. I also wanted to make sure she was not too stressed (the manager was noticeably more nervous than she was.) I told her to take both twenties (which she signed for) and go to the meat counter when no one else was around. She was to tell the meat manager in a quiet tone what she was there for. He then would bring it out to her. She would then pick up a few things she would normally buy, place them into the cart and would subsequently pay for them with one of the twenties. She would then go to the cashier in question. It was imperative, since the cameras did not have sound, that when she is being “helped” by the cashier, to look around as if to see if anyone is looking, and make a large gesture to the items under the cart so that there would be no question as to whether the cashier, in her defense, could say she did not see the items. So after last minute “good luck”s she was off.
I made it clear to the manager at the beginning that this was his operation. As a matter of fact, I would be not even be on his property, but over at the cemetary next door, when all this was going down. I would have a good view to the front of the store from where I was.
The operation lasted for about 45 minutes when I saw Marcy push her cart with the purchased items in a bag and the meat on the bottom rung. The manager, outside in the parking lot, had Marcy hand over the receipt and stood there while the manager balanced out the items in the bag with the change he was getting. I told him this also was imperative, because he was going to have Marcy take out her copy of the receipt she signed for the twenties and the manager would then sign her copy stating she paid back what she received. I told Marcy beforehand that after that happened to leave the property, with our gratitude. This all took place, and per the instructions I gave the manager that he needed to summon me, he waved me back. I parked my cruiser and we went in.
When we entered the store, the front end manager had already asked the cashier to step aside and was grabbing the till and the twenty she placed under the coupon dispenser. This was the first time I saw Felicia (not her real name). She appeared quite stressed as the front end manager was escorting her to the manager’s office. She looked back at me following her and started to shake a little. I had her sit in front of a computer screen with me beside her and told her that I needed to see what the manager has on his camera footage and told her not to say anything until we watched it all the way through. We viewed as Marcy pushed her cart through Felicia’s line. What I then saw was what I would consider to be a Oscar winning performance for best female actor in the film “To Catch An Embezzler”. When it was apparent that they were speaking with each other, Marcy put a finger up as if to say, “Wait until that customer passes before I tell you something,” I saw where the customer walked away pushing her cart, and then in an extremely obvious way, she pointed to the meat on the bottom rung. I witnessed Felicia bracing her hands on the belt and pushing herself up and over the belt to see the meat. At this time Felicia exclaims, “She said she was going to bring it outside to throw on the barbeque and that she would come back and pay for it!!
Now it is important you understand what she meant. This store actually would, from time to time, weather permitting, have a free service if the customer did not want to cook it at home, they had a barbeque master that would cook it up for them on an outside grill out front and place it in a stryofoam container to take home, which I thought was kind of neat.
Right after her exclamation, I warned her again to remain quiet since I still needed to see if there was enough probable cause to make a decision. After she reached over to view the meat, she then nodded her head and held out her hand. Marcy then gave her the other twenty, which Felicia then promptly upon receipt placed, not in the till, but under the coupon dispenser. Felicia then excitedly said, “She asked me if I could hold on to the twenty to give to someone else when they came for it later!” Once again I admonished her to remain quite. We then saw where Felicia ring up the stuff on the belt at which Marcy gave over the other twenty and Felicia made change and handed it to her, and Marcy left out the door.
At that time, Felicia started ranting that she was being wrongfully arrested and that her uncle from the NAACP will sue the store and me and the police department. This was even before I told her she was under arrest. I then again told her that she needed to shut up. I then told her that she was being arrested for embezzlement and that I needed to advise her of her Miranda Warnings. She then went into a tirade of how this was wrong, so this time I told her in a volume I’m sure all the customers and associates in the store heard for her to shut up. I then advised her of her Miranda Warnings. She then beligerantly asked why she was being arrested since it was “that girl” who actually stole the meat. I explained to her that “that girl” would not have been able to do so without her facilitation due to her position with the store. She stated she did not understand this, and I told her that her uncle should be able to explain it to her. I had called for a female officer to come and give Felicia a search before I placed her in the back of my cruiser, so she conducted the search inside of the office. I then cuffed her and I brought her to my cruiser and sat her down in the back seat with her still screaming that she was going to sue and I would live to regret this day, and blah blah blah. I asked the female officer to stay beside my cruiser when I went back in. I spoke with the manager and reassured him not to be concerned with her threats. She has realized that no one is backing down now and that she is actually headed to jail. So she will yell these things loud and often in hopes that we give in. I also assured him since I viewed the camera footage, I had clear and concise evidence that rose to probable cause to make an arrest, so it is all on me now.
All the way to the magistrate’s office, she was going through fits of crying and then angry outbursts. I told her for her own good, she needed to get it all out of her system before she stood before the magistrate. She didn’t listen. After the magistrate granted the warrant, Felicia threatened to add the magistrate to her lawsuit. Ahhh, not a good move. She received a high bond because of her threats and was handed over to the jailers where she had to spend a few days in jail until her family could come up with the amount to pay a bondsman.
The actual trial, since she was finally out of jail, did not happen for another three months. (For those who believe that this is not in compliance to a speedy trial, a speedy trial is only guaranteed to those who are remanded and have to wait for the disposition of their case to breathe fresh free air.) In the meantime, on my off day, I got a call from the Chief. He asked me if he could speak to me off the clock. I had a good working relationship with him and I said certainly. He was a little nervous because he had gotten a call from this young lady stating that she and her attorney wanted to sit down with him and inform him of Officer Cravey’s misconduct. In the way that she said this, it sounded like I had done something so grievous to her and he was concerned. I asked the name, and when I found out, I told him, “Chief, remember that little sting operation I told you about at the grocery store? That was the suspect. Don’t worry about her. Would you like for me to tell you why you shouldn’t worry?” He replied, “Yes please.” I continued, “Think about it. If her attorney really wanted to speak with you, would he have her call you, or would he call you himself? The one thing lawyers always tell their clients is…” He finished my sentence, “Not to talk anymore to the police! That is right, Officer Cravey. Thank you!” I replied, “Not a problem, Chief. This is her way of attempting to intimidate me to shut down the prosecution by getting you involved. Chief, I will keep you in the loop until this case gets heard.” The Chief hung the phone up greatly relieved.
So, finally (I know you are thinking the same thing), the day of the trial is there. Once the “Not Guilty” plea was tendered by her attorney (well, whatta ya know, it wasn’t her uncle, but it was another attorney I hadn’t met before), the defense attorney made a motion to separate, so I wasn’t in the courtroom when all the rest were testifying, but I did get an account from one of my fellow officers that was observing this on what took place. The manager, the meat manager, and the front end manager was all brought forth, testified and was cross examined. Yet the star of the show was Marcy. In my report and statement, I had made it clear how I made contact with her and what she did. So after she testified, the defense attorney in his cross asked, “Ma’am, so you participated in this situation to get out of being prosecuted for theft, isn’t that right?” She simply said, “No.” The defense attorney continued, “Oh, C’mon Ms. so and so (nope, not going to reveal her last name) you didn’t want to go to jail for switching tags on packages of shrimp, so you would do or say anything to keep for going to jail, isn’t that right?” The officer’s account of what then took place was epic. He said she furrowed her brows and her lips tightened that made her look scary, and then she then softly said, “One of the things that bothered me throughout all the planning was that Officer Cravey kept telling me that I didn’t have to do this, almost like he was talking me out of it, and that I still wouldn’t be prosecuted for the shrimp. The last time he brought that up, I told him in so many words to shut up. They let me go, and I didn’t have to do this, but I wanted to in order to make up for what I did.” The defense replied, “Ma’am, that’s a nice story, but do you have proof of this arrangement, like audio recording or something like that?” When the officer was going through this part of the cross, I realized I had made a extreme error. In all of the documents I have submitted in my case file, I failed to get a copy of that letter we gave her for the case file, so the prosecutor didn’t even have a copy as well. But then the next few words were fabulous. He told me when asked if she had proof, she thought, and said, “You know what? Can I check my purse? Thank you. Okay, here it is!” In all those months she had left that letter in her purse and had never taken it out. If the defense attorney would have never asked if she had proof, her testimony concerning her motivation could be questioned. Thanks buddy, and Marcy!!
I’ll only mention two instances during my cross that I thought that were noteworthy. At the time I was in court, I was not wearing a uniform but a suit, which is one of the options we can wear to court per our policy. When the defense attorney addressed me, he said, ” Investigator Cravey,…” I interrupted, “Thank you sir for the promotion, but I am just Officer Cravey.” He furrowed his brow, looked down at his paperwork, “Not investigator, but your just an officer, and you conducted this investigation?” “Yes, sir.” “Oh, wow, okay…” I’m sorry, but I have to admit that felt good coming from a seasoned defense attorney.”
Those “let’s play marbles and go get an ice cream cone” affirmations didn’t last. At one time, he sternly said, “Tell me, Officer Cravey, you placed my client down in front of the computer screen to elicit a response from her BEFORE you advised my client of her Miranda Rights, isn’t that right!” I replied, “No sir, I allowed her to watch what I was watching to be efficient. That way we didn’t have to go back and show her what I was talking about after she was Mirandized. As a matter of fact, I told her for her to remain quiet while I watched the footage and confirm what the manager claimed. I told her several times during the viewing to be quiet, and, as I remember, told her to shut up one time so loud that the assistant manager told me he heard it on the floor. I’m sure if you call him up to the stand again, he will confirm what I say.” When the defense counselor later argued the point to the judge that my intention was to lure a confession out of her, the judge shut that down right away stating that Officer Cravey told her to keep quiet many times and she did not listen.
During the sentencing phase (yep, she got convicted in spite of her threats, and I have yet to get a subpoena from her attorney for a lawsuit), since the judge understood that she had been doing this several times and threatened and intimidated the witnesses in earlier instances, the judge gave her a five year sentence even though she did not have a criminal history up to that point. He suspended all but six months that she would have to serve on weekends since she got a new job at a factory, as I remember.
After the court case, I was to be given some news that would make this success even more appreciated. The manager told me that he meant to tell me sooner, but it slipped his mind. He said, “You know, Officer Cravey, before we conducted that little operation, we were losing our shirts in the alcohol and meat departments. When you walked Felicia out in cuffs in front of the other employees, three other clerks we had suspected of doing the same thing the next morning without explanation up and quit. Officer Cravey, since that time over these past months, our profit margins have skyrocketed. Officer Cravey, you plugged a hole!! And again, thank you so much for what you have done!” I thanked him and told him that it was just as much as his success and it was mine.
Please don’t misunderstand this. I am not attempting to promote myself and try to get you to see “Look what I did!” It is more or less to remind you if you are consistent in what you do, little victories here and there pop up and it makes you more motivated to do your job the best you can.
Let me also say, if you are one that has a problem with shoplifting and you cannot understand why you do it, there is a condition for that which can be treated with therapy. I don’t have a link yet but I will research and see if I can find one where you can get the help you need before you get yourself into serious trouble. Leave a comment if what I have said has helped, so that I can be happy for you and pray for your recovery.
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