Bend couple arrested in organized grocery theft raid

A raid on a home on Bend’s south end Friday morning brought the arrests of a couple accused of stealing more than $27,000 worth of items from Safeway stores in Central Oregon and the Portland area. Many of the items were sold at online sites like Craigslist and eBay, police said.

Redmond detectives executed a search warrant shortly before 10 a.m. at a home at 61216 Brittle Brush Street, off Badger Road, in an investigation of organized retail theft. Police arrested Jessica Lynn Jensen, 27, and her boyfriend, Kevin Holliday, 32, said Redmond police Sgt. Curtis Chambers.

Redmond police were contacted late last month by the Safeway Organized Retail Crime Team about an investigation the company had been conducting for the past several months, Chambers said. Safeway has been able to document over $27,000 worth of items stolen from victimized Safeway stores in Bend, Redmond and the Portland area, he said.

Jensen was arrested on charges of organized retail theft, five counts of second-degree burglary and eight counts of first-degree theft. She was held at the Deschutes County Jail on $145,000 bail.

Holliday was held on $50,000 bail, accused of organized retail theft, methamphetamine possession and three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor, as three children under age 10 were in the home where drug activity took place, Chambers said. The children were placed in the custody of other family members, he added.

Bend police assisted Redmond police at the scene of the raid, Chambers said. He also acknowledged the “hard work” of the Safeway Organized Retail Crime Team that made the arrests and recovery of stolen property possible.

Chambers said the investigation continues and that they will be looking into whether other stores also were victimized.