Family Accused Of Thefts Involving Bar Codes Police: Stolen Items Sold On eBay
POSTED: 6:30 pm CST March 1, 2006 UPDATED: 5:04 pm CST March 2, 2006
HOUSTON -- Five family members were arrested at their Houston-area homes in connection with a theft ring that started at stores and extended to the World Wide Web, officials told KPRC Local 2 in an exclusive story Wednesday. Investigators from the Harris County District Attorney's Office served warrants at three locations Wednesday morning. Cindy Jahanian; her daughter, Krystal; Nicholas Johanian, Elizabeth Espree and Valerie Baker were taken into custody. All are accused of a massive theft ring that was largely a family affair. "The father, the mother and son have all been arrested for this before. The son is currently on probation. The father is in the (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) and the mother served time in a state jail facility," said John Brewer, an assistant district attorney. Police said family head Baraham Jahanian directed the thefts from his prison cell, where he's serving a 12-year sentence for theft. Inside the homes, investigators found preprinted bar code labels they believe the family used over the last three months to steal as much as a quarter-million dollars in merchandise from local stores, including Wal-Mart, Target, Lowe's and Home Depot. And it may not be only in Houston. Over the last six months, district attorney's office investigators said the ring hit stores as far away as Dallas, San Antonio, Bryan, Brenham and Galveston. Here's how it worked, according to police: A family member would go into a store such as Wal-Mart and buy an inexpensive item like a squeegee. He would then take it home and copy the bar code label. That label would be taken back to the store and put on a more expensive item like a digital camera, which could then be purchased for a fraction of the price, investigators said. The stolen merchandise would be sold for cash on eBay, officials said, listed under the seller name "bwatcher." D.A. investigators tracked hundreds of sales. "They scan it for $20 or $30 at most and on eBay get $175, $165, something like that," Brewer said. Officials are still tallying up all the stolen merchandise. They believe the operation has been in business for at least two years and that the losses may total more than $1 million.
