Owner of 2 Bucks pawnshops charged in fencing scheme
Employees of the Levittown Quick Cash Trading Post and Morrisville Loan & Pawn allegedly purchased more than 5,000 stolen items at one third-of their retail value from professional thieves who shoplifted them from well-known retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, CVS and Giant Foods at stores across southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The owner of two Bucks County pawnshops, four of his employees, and 27 professional retail thieves have been charged in connection with a scheme to pawn and resell $700,000 worth of merchandise stolen from chain stores, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Thursday.
Over the course of more than a year, Shapiro said, employees of Levittown Quick Cash Trading Post and Morrisville Loan & Pawn allegedly purchased — at one-third of their retail value — more than 5,000 items that had been shoplifted from Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and other well-known retailers in Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The pawn shops resold the unopened, brand-new merchandise on eBay or other online retailers at full value. The thieves, known as "boosters," used their cut of the proceeds to feed heroin and opioid addictions, Shapiro said.
Michael Stein, 35, of Langhorne, owner of the pawn shops, was charged with corrupt organizations, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy. His employees Lyle Boden, 28, of Philadelphia, Joshua Fedalen, 26, of Sharon Hill, Brian Jancia, 29, of Holmes, and Victor Kline Jr., 46, of Philadelphia, were charged with corrupt organizations, receiving stolen property and conspiracy.
"These pawn shop workers and their owner knew they were buying stolen merchandise at 30 cents on the dollar, but they were blinded by their own greed," Shapiro said at a news conference in Bucks County. "They profited on the addictions of the booster thieves and their desperation for money to feed their addictions."