League City police are looking for whoever made off with 122 ink printer cartridges worth about $20,000 from a Wal-Mart store.
The theft occurred on March 3 about 10:45 a.m. at the Wal-Mart at 1701 W. FM 646 but was not discovered until Thursday, when the store’s security officers were reviewing surveillance tape.
League City Police Sgt. John Jordan gave the following account of what security officers discovered:
Two women entered the store and picked up a large, green plastic storage bin from the housewares department.
They loaded it into their shopping cart, then went to the store’s electronics department and loaded ink printer cartridges into the bin.
“Basically they were just pulling every single one of them off the rack,” Jordan said.
Afterward, the two women loitered in the electronics department for about an hour before heading to the hardware department and picking up a can of insulated foam. Before using a fire exit in the lawn and garden department to leave the store with the ink cartridges, they sprayed the speakers of an anti-theft alarm with the foam so it couldn’t be heard going off as they opened the door.
Outside, the women left the shopping basket with the bin of stolen ink printer cartridges near the door, and soon a man in a dark green Ford Expedition loaded them up and took off.
The 122 ink printer cartridges stolen range in value from $13 to $492 each.
“This is starting to be a trend that we’re seeing,” Jordan said. “We’ve had this happen with shaving razors. Where these types of items are going, we have no idea.”
The thieves are being sought for engaging in organized criminal activity and state jail felony theft.
Jordan said the women are described as white or Hispanic. One is slightly overweight and the other is thin. The man who loaded the cartridges is white, and he was wearing a brown jacket.
