Who is Tre Brown? 19-year-old accused of stealing almost $1 million from Kroger store to buy clothes, guns, cars
GWINNETT COUNTY, GEORGIA: Tre Brown, a 19-year-old Duluth man, was recently arrested by local law authorities in Gwinnett after he tried to pull off a nearly $1 million scam at the local store where he worked on Steve Reynolds Blvd. As per reports, Brown's bizarre scam idea caught the attention of corporate Kroger employees, who contacted the police after noticing fraudulent transactions.
Tre Brown's Scam
These days most of the stores have an exchange or return policy. Brown utilized this policy to make money over a period of two weeks in December 2020. While he worked at the grocery store, he created more than 40 returns for non-existent items and put them on credit cards. The returned products' price ranged from $75 to more than $87,000. As per the police, Brown used this money to buy two vehicles, shoes, clothes and a gun.
As per New York Post, Brown scammed the store of more than $980,000. Gwinnett County detective Collin Flynn gave intrinsic details about the case and how Brown nearly escaped the arrest.
"This person who was stealing decided to go real big," Gwinnett Corporal Collin Flynn said, via Fox6News. "This employee was essentially creating fake items. Taking those items and returning them to a credit card he had and just making up prices for those items. The first one he did was in the range of 10 dollars, and as he continued to get away with it, the prices continued to go up until he made a return of over 87,000 that returned to a credit card. It seems like this is a rare case where things snuck through the cracks, and the person was able to get away with a large amount of money in a short period of time."
As per the officials, even though Brown returned most of the money, he is still facing a charge of theft by taking. As per the Gwinnett District Attorney's Office, a misdemeanor charge of theft is punishable by up to 12 months in prison and a $1,000 fine. Additionally, the sentenced person can be required to complete a couple of courses that help them make better life choices. He/She is also required to complete community services.
Brown's main consequences are that he will now have a permanent criminal record and will mostly be excluded from carrying firearms and seeking specific types of employment.