The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Chicago Man Charged in Years Long $6M Home Depot Scam

Tyler Clark (Chicago Police Department)
Chicago Police Department
Amy Furr

Officials have charged a fourth suspect in a fraud scam that caused Home Depot stores in Chicago to lose a massive chunk of money.

In an article published Thursday, CWB Chicago said it reported in May the stores were defrauded by several individuals who racked up $900 credits over 6,000 times for one purchase a few years prior:

Officials said the scam began in March 2020 when someone purchased more than $6,000 from the home improvement chain’s 2570 North Elston location. Days later, someone returned to the store and said the purchase was for a tax-exempt church. A store employee accepted the tax-exempt documents and issued the representative a $900 gift card for the tax value.

Taxes on the purchase were $555, and that receipt was recycled for three years to make over 6,000 gift cards. Many of those cards had $900 on them.

“Cashiers scanned the receipt bar code from an accomplice’s phone each time, manually entered the tax exemption information, and then cut a gift card for the difference,” the report continued, noting some of the cashiers made several gift cards for the same purchase at one time, and some had a copy of the receipt saved on their phones to use.

Now, prosecutors allege a man identified as 25-year-old Tyler Clark took part in the scheme when he was a cashier at one of the store’s locations on South Western.

He is accused of making $900 gift cards for the 2020 purchase over 900 times, an act that allegedly drained the company of $873,900.

Now, the charges against him are continuing financial crimes enterprise and theft of $500,000 to $1 million. However, he was released on his own recognizance Thursday, per Judge David Kelly.

Authorities initially estimated the company was drained of $5.5 million in the scam, however, the number has since been updated to approximately $6 million, the CWB Chicago report said.

The outlet also named 49-year-old Lamont Thompson as one of the “customers” in the case, along with two Home Depot cashiers identified as 38-year-old Christiana Westbrooks, and 46-year-old Sharon Dwyer.

Although the three suspects were eventually charged in the case, they were freed on their own recognizance. In addition, the CWB report noted that how the scam was able to continue unnoticed for three years remained a mystery.

“Just keep going until you get caught because eventually they will catch up with you,” one social media user commented on the story, while another said, “If he was a politician, he would have gotten away with it,” when speaking of Clark.

However, fraud is not the only trouble Home Depot has been grappling with. In June, Home Depot CEO Ted Decker said, “we are increasingly concerned with some life safety of our associates and customer base” and noted that retail theft has increased “in certain tough cities.”

He said the company was investing in more security guards, lighting, and additional lighting in parking lots, along with recording towers, in order to remedy the problem.

“And it’s not a place that many of us in retail thought we’d have to be,” he added.

In December, an 83-year-old Home Depot worker in North Carolina died after reportedly being shoved by an alleged shoplifter, according to Breitbart News.

Gary Rasor, the victim, was allegedly assaulted at the store in Hillsborough when he tried to confront a man who was allegedly stealing pressure washers.

*UPDATE- Mr. Gary has passed away due to complications as a result of his injuries.On 10/18/2022, the suspect in this video injured an 82-year-old man while committing larceny from the Home Depot. We need YOUR help in identifying this person. The suspect fled the scene in a white, 4-door, Hyundai Sonata with a North Carolina Temporary tag obscured from witnesses. Please email Investigator Jones at andrew.jones@hillsboroughnc.gov or call him at 919-296-9562. You can also message us on Facebook.

Posted by Hillsborough Police Department on Wednesday, October 19, 2022

“Rasor suffered several fractured bones, and he was in the hospital for weeks and unable to walk. His condition worsened after he viewed footage of the incident for the first time, according to his wife,” the outlet said.

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