Cashier charged in card fraud
Home Depot worker arrested
A 21-year-old Home Depot employee is accused of selling more than $50,000 in gift cards topersons using stolen credit card numbers, police said. Kevin Mitchell, of Davie, was arrested Thursday at theDaviehome supply store and is charged with grand theft.
Authorities say that Mitchell was caught on the store’s security surveillance footage allowing a man and a woman to make fraudulent transactions to purchase gift cards at the store at 5801 S. University Drive. Mitchell, who has been working as a cashier forThe Home Depot since March, made 18 transactions on April 30 and May 8 and 17, according to a police report.
On those three days, the man and woman bought a total of $51,128 in gift cards and merchandise with Mitchell’s help, investigators said. Mitchell told police that the twowere strangers who approached him at the store and offered him $500 for every $20,000 that hewould allowthemtopurchase. Mitchell ultimately took a $1,000 cut from the transactions, according to the report. He told police that they would coordinate days and times when Mitchell would be working in order to buy the gift cards. The cashier would accommodate the pair and sell them gift cards valued at more than the $50 limit that line cashiers are permitted to sell, the report said.
Mitchell also told police that he would let the pair enter the stolen credit card numbers on a keypad instead of displaying actual credit cards. According to Capt. Dale Engle, police do not yet have the identities of the man and woman who made the fraudulent purchases. Mitchell remained at Broward’s main jail on a $1,000bond on Friday afternoon.