Best Buy employee tied to shoplifting ring
In 2023, a few months before Lettera’s alleged fraud began, the National Retail Foundation warned that keeping tabs on employee theft had become a higher priority for retailers. During periods of inflation retail theft tends to climb, and their survey found record levels of staff turnover were putting strain on retail workers and making it easier for those intent on fraud to succeed.
For Best Buy, the risk of losses tied to pressured employees appears to continue as inflation lingers. Last month, a worker at a Best Buy in Georgia allegedly aided a shoplifting crew that stole more than $40,000 in goods, a local CBS News affiliate reported.
Police paperwork and surveillance video, authorities say, show 20-year-old Dorian Allen letting shoplifters walk out of the store with over 140 unpaid items. Stolen merchandise reportedly included “dozens of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S consoles, AirPods, Meta Quest VR headsets, Beats wireless headphones, a PC, a Segway, wireless controllers, and more,” according to CBS News.
Facing theft charges, Allen told investigators he’d been blackmailed by a hacker group that threatened to publish nude photos he had shared on Instagram if he didn’t cooperate. Allegedly acting under coercion, Allen memorized descriptions of the shoplifters so he could let them take merchandise without ringing it up, and he is accused of helping load items into their vehicles.
Store managers alerted police after investigators say Allen spent weeks helping the thieves without being detected.
