Multi-State Retail Theft Crew Busted In East Bay: Police

HERCULES, CA — A crew of suspects believed to be responsible for stealing more than $4.5 million from Home Depot stores up and down the West Coast over the last four years was caught Friday in Hercules, police said.

The Hercules Police Department said it was alerted Thursday of a suspect known to steal items from Home Depot stores throughout the state, then return some of the stolen items for the cash price.

Home Depot has been working on cases involving the suspect for over three years and believes he has stolen over $4.5 million from the company, police said. Home Depot has confirmed the suspect has stolen over $500,000 since September from multiple Home Depot stores up and down the West Coast, police said.

At 11:19 a.m. Friday, a Hercules officer spotted a 2006 Ford Econoline van associated with the Home Depot thefts.

The van was backed into a parking stall across the street from the Home Depot on Sycamore Avenue, so officers waited for a suspect called "Alderete" to return.

When officers found approximately $10,000 of stolen Home Depot merchandise in the van, Alderete and the other suspects were arrested and booked into Contra Costa County jail, police said.

The multi-state organized retail theft crew averaged about $105,000 a month in thefts, police said.

When apprehended Friday, the crew had merchandise believed to have been stolen earlier that day from Home Depot stores in the cities of Tracy, Fairfield and Vallejo, police said.

The full names of those suspected in the retail theft crew were not included in Hercules Police Department's statement about their arrests.