Trio arrested for shoplifting had 'close to $10,000 in merchandise'

A shoplifting report at Academy Sports + Outdoors resulted in local authorities seizing thousands of dollars worth of suspected stolen athletic merchandise and arresting three, including one Cuban national already facing possible deportation.

Monday afternoon, “we received a report from Academy Sports of three shoplifters,” explained Poplar Bluff Police Detective Scott Phelps. “(The men) went in with several items into the dressing room, and when they come out, they were not carrying as much as they went in with.

“Some of the clothes were left in the little service area outside the fitting rooms. After they left the store, employees found some tags left behind in the fitting rooms.”

When officers arrived, Phelps said, they were given a description of the suspects, as well as their vehicle, including its license plate number.

“A short time later, an officer saw a vehicle matching the description, and when he got close he confirmed it was the suspect vehicle by its license plate,” Phelps explained.

When the officer stopped the 2019 Dodge Caravan, they refused consent to look in the van for the suspected stolen merchandise, Phelps said.

Arrested on suspicion of stealing were: Jose Angel Soto Torres, 27, of Orlando, Fla.; Alexis Otero, 29, of Miami, Fla., and Xavier Perez, 46, of Coral Gables, Fla.

Otero and Torres reportedly spoke very little English and Perez acted as their interpreter at that time.

All three were subsequently booked at the Butler County jail. Otero, Phelps said, has a detainer from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Their van, according to Phelps, was impounded and towed. A search warrant subsequently was applied for and granted.

“Upon searching the van, we located four large, hard-shell suitcases, two large duffle bags, two backpacks and one large soft suitcase,” Phelps explained.

Each suitcase/bag, Phelps said, contained name-brand clothing, including Adidas, Under Armour, Nike, The North Face and Puma.

“Ninety-nine percent was athletic wear,” as well as a large quantity of name-brand shoes, including children’s sizes, Phelps said.

“There were some tags from Academy, and we have yet to find a receipt for any of it during the search of the van,” said Phelps.

About $280 worth of merchandise was stolen from the local Academy store, but the items are “so mismatched in the bags” there is no way to be sure what was taken locally.

Also found was a stack of new plastic Walmart sacks, said Phelps, who along with Detective Dan Mustain, spent Tuesday afternoon removing all the items from the suitcases and laying them out on a table to be photographed.

The officers had “three full, huge tables of merchandise,” and expected three to four more tables before their inventory was complete.

Police Chief Danny Whiteley estimated there was “close to $10,000 in merchandise seized. It’s obvious they are professional thieves, one of which is being deported.

“In talking to the ICE agent … he said they see this frequently with Cubans going into stores, like Home Depot, Academy Sports, that carry high-dollar merchandise” and stealing.

The agent, Whiteley said, report is was not uncommon to see six or eight people in a caravan committing the thefts.

“Academy representatives are on their way here from Jonesboro (Ark.) to try to figure it out,” Phelps said.“It appears they travel back and forth across the country shoplifting.

“There is no way to determine what cities and states that have been hit.”

Corporate officials with Academy, Phelps said, are going to try to work with their various stores to see if they can find similar shoplifting incidents with “people matching their description and vehicle.”Academy officials, he said, will have to do a lot of research to match shoplifting incidents to a certain vehicle/suspects.

The men, he said, drove here, but “we don’t know where they were before this.”

The van, according to Phelps, was a rental.

“I was told at the time of the stop, they said they were en route from Florida to Texas,” Phelps said.

Mustain, Phelps said, checked the vehicle’s sticker with the rental company and found it had been rented Saturday at a Houston, Texas airport for a one-way trip to Miami. The van was due back on Sunday, March 3.

“Their story was backwards as far as where they say they were heading,” Phelps said. “There is no logical reason to be in Missouri if going from Houston to Miami.”

At this time, Phelps said, the men are only charged with the Class A misdemeanor of stealing

Common sense, he said, tells the officers all the merchandise is stolen; however, other charges can’t be sought until Academy or other businesses can identify suspects/van and items as having been stolen from locations in say Arkansas, Oklahoma or elsewhere.

“All we have is a misdemeanor; hopefully, through the investigation we can seek further charges,” Phelps said.

“We’ve got their cellphones; we’ll be getting a search warrant for them to see if we can backtrack where they’ve been and/or any computer technology (such as OnStar) in the vehicle,” said Whiteley.

After officers do “our forensics maybe we can figure out a federal nexus for federal prosecution,” said Whiteley, who commended the officers on their diligence and Academy Sports for being “proactive in their shoplifting deterrents.”

All three men are being held on $2,000 cash bond and are to appear Thursday before Associate Circuit Judge C. Wade Pierce for arraignment.