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FAIRMONT -- A Sioux Falls man is facing a felony charge in Martin County.
James Albert Pollard, 40, has been charged with possession of burglary tools, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
According to the complaint:
On April 21, a Shopko employee was performing general surveillance of the sales floor when he observed Pollard remove some video games from the shelves and use an S3 handkey to remove them from the cases. (An S3 handkey is a device used by retailers to open the alpha cases of the video games at the register.) Pollard was observed placing two of the video games under his coat and placing other games in a cart.
Later, when Pollard went down an aisle with limited visibility and then exited the aisle, the employee could see that none of the video games were in the shopping cart.
Pollard left the store without paying for any video games.
The employee followed Pollard outside and stopped him, identifying himself as store security. Pollard turned around and removed the video games from his inside coat pocket and handed them to the employee.
At this time, Fairmont police officers arrived to assist, and the S3 handkey was located inside Pollard's pocket.
The employee showed the police officers video footage on his computer, which showed Pollard removing the security devices from the video games and concealing the merchandise. Pollard was placed under arrest and transported to the Martin County Law Enforcement Center.
Pollard was read his rights and agreed to answer questions. Pollard said he would take full responsibility for the theft. He also consented to Fairmont officers searching his vehicle, and stated there were some video games in it that had been stolen from the Walmart store in Sioux Falls days earlier.
The video games were retrieved by police officers. The Shopko employee filed a report indicating the value of the games recovered from Pollard, which totaled $299.95.