Detroit bar owner charged in theft ring

Until recently, at Cas Bar in Detroit, customers could get a beer or a shot of whiskey, or if they knew who to ask, an Instant Pot, a television or a few containers of air freshener.

The bar with its woodpaneled walls on a corner of Michigan Avenue was home to a million-dollar organized retail fraud enterprise, according to Chief Ronald Haddad of the Dearborn Police Department in a Detroit suburb.

Police raided Cas Bar last week, finding a hoard of stolen merchandise in the basement: pinball machines, stacks of energy drinks, alcohol, tools, a washing machine, Starbucks coffee, televisions, guns, ceiling fans, faucets and $600,000 stashed in a large box of Velveeta, authorities said. The same day, police raided three other locations in the Detroit area that they suspected were used to store stolen merchandise.

In May, authorities began watching the bar’s owner, Beverly Jo Sassin, after they arrested a man who had been accused of shoplifting “large amounts of alcohol” from a retail store in Dearborn, according to Haddad. During an interview meant to determine whether he needed help with drug addiction, the man explained to police that he

could fence the stolen goods at Cas Bar, the chief said.

“It was a criminal enterprise concealed in a legitimate business that was the bar,” Haddad said Wednesday.

The illegal business was perhaps most unusual because it was rooted in the community and because it went undetected for so long. Authorities believe that Sassin had been running her retail fraud ring for several years, Haddad said.

These fencing operations are relatively uncommon, according to Ryan Sullivan, an assistant professor at Nebraska College of Law. “While these

fencing operations are out there, they account for a tiny fraction of the overall volume of retail theft,” Sullivan said. “The vast majority of shoplifters in America are low-income individuals who steal items for their personal use, not for resale.”

Last week, authorities arrested Sassin, 70, who is known as Mama Jo, and three others — Jodie Beth Welbes, Christopher Buccanion and Amanda Lynn Mosed — in connection with the retail fraud ring, police said.

All four were charged with felony racketeering, conducting a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit organized retail crime, and receiving and concealing stolen property, according to police. Buccanion was also

charged with two other felonies, police said: possession of a weapon by a felon and possession of a firearm.

Sassin and Mosed were released on $100,000 bond on Nov. 30. Welbes, whose bail was set at $100,000, was also released. Buccanion, whose bail was set at $250,000, remained in the Wayne County jail Friday. A court hearing for the four defendants was scheduled for Friday morning.

A court-appointed lawyer for Sassin said Thursday he had not yet been in touch with her. Lawyers for Mosed and Buccanion did not respond to requests for comment Friday. A court-appointed lawyer for Welbes did not respond to an email requesting comment Friday.