Manteca police say 4 Modesto residents arrested are in organized retail theft group
Four members of what the Manteca Police Department called an organized retail crime group from Modesto were arrested last week outside the Walmart Supercenter on Main Street there.
The investigation found the group was “printing false purchase stickers for Walmart to avoid paying for the merchandise in the store,” the Police Department said in a post on its Facebook page Friday. “$1,500 worth of electronic merchandise was found in their vehicle.”
Modesto residents Angelina Alvarez, 32, Kaitlyn Stolze, 28, Carl Goodman, 39, and Robert Gonzalez, 40, were booked at the San Joaquin County Jail on various organized retail theft charges.
The arrests came after Walmart reported two males and two females leaving the store Wednesday afternoon with shopping carts full of merchandise that hadn’t been paid for. After taking the carts to a vehicle, the group went back in the store for two more carts of merchandise, the post said.
Walmart loss-prevention employees attempted to detain Goodman and Gonzalez in the store, but they refused to comply. The two men walked into the parking lot, where they were detained by police officers. The two women also were detained.
According to the Facebook post, Manteca PD is running a pilot program that has a detective dedicated solely to organized retail crimes.
