Mom & kid had gift of ‘grab’
A Brooklyn mother-daughter duo were nabbed for allegedly stealing $250,000 worth of Staples e-gift cards.
Rosemarie and Tashana Barnett blew the stolen funds during a two-year shopping spree on Gucci shoes, other luxury clothing and electronics, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The women were arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun Thursday. They were slapped with charges of computer tampering, grand larceny and falsifying business records for allegedly pocketing some 700 electronic gift cards.
Rosemarie, 55, and Tashana, 30, both pleaded not guilty. Chun ordered the women held on $100,000 each.
Between Dec. 2014 and Sept. 2016, the pair tricked a Staples employee into giving them the electronic gift cards over e-mail by creating false billing information and calling the customerservice hot line thousands of times, prosecutors said.
The Barnetts then spent the looted thousands at various retailers, like Target, Foot Locker, American Eagle Outfitters and Nordstrom, where they bought True Religion jeans, Ugg boots and multiple Apple iPad Airs.
“These defendants worked persistently and shrewdly in conducting this alleged long-running scheme,” Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. “We will remain vigilant in uprooting all types of fraud in Brooklyn . . . and will hold those who commit them accountable.”