Two Atlanta women allegedly used a price tag gun to return clothing from Goodwill to a T.J. Maxx, disguising the items as purchased goods from the retailer.
The clever scheme got April Walker and Laquwanda Wilcher $155 for three pair of jeans, after the duo swapped the luxury brands with thrifty finds, Athens-Clarke County police in an incident report.
Roughly a month after the July 3 crime, the women were arrested and booked into the Fulton County jail on theft charges.
“What they do is buy expensive jeans and go out to their vehicle and switch the tags over to jeans they purchased at stores like Goodwill,” Athens-Clarke County police Officer Shawn Denmark wrote in his report. “They then come back in and return the jeans with the receipt they just got, get their money back, but also keep possession of the expensive jeans.”
Charles Crockett, a loss prevention employee at the Alps Road store, told police they’d been on the women’s trail for a while.
Crockett was able to give police their names and a description of their SUV, a black Chevy Equinox. The women were thought to be heading back to Atlanta, when police were told they ran the same scam at a Marshall’s store in Oconee County.
Athens-Clarke County police asked Barrow County officials to search for the car at another T.J. Maxx in Bethlehem.
Barrow County authorities found the women a short time later but only arrested Wilcher, who had a warrant out for her arrest in Cherokee County, according to the police report.
Walker was released, but she was arrested a few weeks later at a RaceTrac gas station on Mansell Road after Alpharetta police got a 911 call regarding another theft at a nearby T.J. Maxx, Channel 2 Action News reported. Store tags were found in her car during the arrest.
Walker faces charges of theft by deception and possession of tools for the commission of a crime in Fulton County. The women also face theft by deception and shoplifting charges in Clarke County, according to the police report.
Both are out of jail on bond.
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