A Roving Band of Scalawag Thieves Robbed $20k in Gift Cards
A roving band of criminals had been stealing merchandise and gift cards from businesses.
The stolen items reached a value of at least $53,000.
But one part of Fairfax County, Virginia was ready for their arrival...
"But, perhaps, if there was less Law, there might be more Justice, than in some other Courts; for, if the civil Law be a Law of universal Reason, judging of the Rectitude, or Obliquity of Mens Actions, every Man of common Sense is endued with a Portion of it, at least sufficient to make him distinguish Right from Wrong, or what the Civilians call, Malum in se."- Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724)
"I think crime pays. The hours are good, you meet a lot of interesting people, you travel a lot."- Virgil Starkwell, Take the Money and Run (1969)
Gift cards: They can be an easy way to give somebody something that's not thoughtless, cold-hard cash. Not a complex gift, but rather, a sort of vague suggestion of a thing. An "I don't know what you want, but I know where you shop, so get something on me."
But it turns out gift cards can also be so much more than that. They can be bribes for airline workers. They can be ways to pay off the taxes on that totally legit inheritance you got from the grandma you just found out about.
They can also pose a formidable piece of booty to plunder for roving bands of thieves. And it turns out just such a fearsome trio of plunderers had been scouring Virginia for goods and gift cards to heist earlier this year. But where once pirates in 1660 so filled Chesapeake Bay "...that it is impossible for any ships to go home safely," these modern scalawags had set their sights instead on Tysons Corner, a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County.
According to Wavy, a recent arrest of the roving band of thieves "...led to the recovery of 154 items worth $33,000 and dozens of gift cards valued at $20,000."
The trio allegedly made their $53k in ill-gotten gains through fraudulent purchase and return schemes, traveling across the county to hit a number of businesses. They thought they had it all figured out. But they didn't count on three letters that should strike fear in the hearts of con artists everywhere: TUT.
Yes, that's right. That TUT.
The Tysons Urban Team of the Fairfax County Police Department.
TUT were on the case, told to be on the lookout for "a number of organized retail theft groups that were making the rounds." And as everyone knows, if there's one census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia where you don't want to be a roving group of merchandise and gift card thieves, it's the census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia that's under the watchful eye of TUT.
"The next day," the report continues, "TUT officers saw three men at Tysons Corner Center whom they said were making fraudulent returns. That’s when officers arrested them." When busted, TUT searched the plunder of these modern-day pirates to find not only the aforementioned merchandise and gift cards, but a whopping five fake I.D.s.
And so, a trio of traveling criminal masterminds are foiled, all thanks to the watchful eye of ... TUT! Who will next threaten the shops and retailers of Tysons Corner, the census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia? Tune in next time to find out. Same TUT time, same TUT channel!
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