Walmart’s newly-revised coupon policy says it does not accept coupons for gift cards. It also doesn’t accept mobile coupons, coupons that aren’t on its master list of legitimate coupons, and it certainly doesn’t accept counterfeits.
Try telling that to Lenito McCarthy and Kadeem Fletcher (pictured above, from top to bottom), two Walmart shoppers who’ve been arrested and accused of engaging in all of the above, on multiple occasions.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in suburban Houston, Texas announced the two men’s most recent arrests last week. Deputies with the Crime Reduction Unit, which specializes in investigating organized and retail theft, responded to a report of criminal activity at a local Walmart and a Marshalls last Thursday evening.
According to the sheriff’s incident report, Walmart reported the theft of about $900 worth of household items and auto supplies. Investigators tracked down the suspects’ vehicle and pulled them over, recovering the items and arresting them both.
This was no run-of-the-mill shoplifting incident, though. The men were “affiliated with a nationwide organized retail fraud network known for executing coupon scams and fraudulent merchandise return schemes,” the sheriff’s office announced.
Both men have recently been charged with carrying out similar schemes in other parts of the country. Fletcher, who’s from Lithonia, Georgia, was arrested in nearby Cobb County in September for retail theft. And McCarthy, from Missouri City, Texas, was arrested one week later in Lake County, Florida.
Investigators there offered many more details about how the incident they investigated went down. It also took place at a Walmart, where store employees reported that McCarthy was “using an unauthorized bar code on a cellular device” at self-checkout. Each scan of the bar code allegedly deducted $40 from a purchase of a $50 gift card. On this particular occasion, investigators said McCarthy scanned the fraudulent mobile coupon 11 times to get $550 worth of Visa, Mastercard and American Express gift cards for just $110 plus taxes and fees.
According to the criminal complaint, a later review of surveillance footage showed “three other males conducting the same criminal act using the identical iPhone with the bar code.” McCarthy “was observed communicating with one of the individuals as they shared the iPhone to receive the same discount.” The other suspects were never identified.
Walmart, meanwhile, “looked through their theft system throughout all Walmarts,” and determined that McCarthy had allegedly “stolen a total of $18,285 from multiple Walmarts within the United States.”
McCarthy and Fletcher were each out on $2,500 bond from their previous arrests when they were arrested in Texas. Now they each face organized retail theft charges in Texas as well.
While the men are accused of being serial offenders, none of the arresting agencies so far appears to have connected the dots to link either of the men to a professionalized retail theft ring. The fact that each suspect has allegedly scanned a fake coupon off a phone screen to get big discounts on gift cards is not unusual – it’s a scam that’s been going on for years, and frequently ends up in the news.
But as evidenced by its latest coupon policy update, Walmart wants you to know that it doesn’t accept coupons for gift cards. Even if it frequently, unknowingly, still does.
Image sources: Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office / Jeepers Media 
