Police: Phoenix man tied to thefts from AutoZones
Police arrested a 25-year-old Phoenix man after investigators said he stole hundreds of items from local auto-part stores by recording managers’ passwords and taking advantage of busy employees, according to a police statement.
Phoenix police said Davion Brayboy was involved in at least 136 incidents at Phoenix-area AutoZone stores in which he walked out with automotive components and then returned them later.
Police received initial reports from AutoZone in May 2014 after store representatives contacted investigators from the Phoenix Police Business and Economic Stability Team.
Police said Brayboy would enter the business, contact a manager and ask the manager to look for specific items in the computer system, which re- quires a password, according to the release. The 25-year-old would record the password with a cell phone and wait for the employees to become busy, according to the release.
Brayboy would then go to a store computer and create a fraudulent return record within the AutoZone system, using the manager’s password, police said. The process allowed Brayboy to return stolen items for cash, according to a police statement.
Investigators established probable cause for 136 incidents, and Brayboy was arrested following a traffic stop on suspicion of fraud, burglary, theft, and computer tampering, police said.
Similar incidents may have occurred in California, where Brayboy was living prior to his arrest, and in Nevada, according to the police statement.
“Suspects do this stuff so brazenly because they don’t fear being caught. Their mistake is that they are doing it in the city of Phoenix,” Sgt. David Lake, a Phoenix Police Business and Economic Stability Team supervisor said in the statement.