Two Bend men accused of stealing $1,000s in items from 4 large stores

To sell online; Sportsman's Warehouse, Bi-Mart, Fred Meyer, Walmart targeted

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Two Bend men have been arrested on organized retail theft and other charges, accused of stealing more than $6,300 worth of items from four major retailers to sell on the internet, police said Thursday.

A Bend officer who responded to Sportsman’s Warehouse last month on a reported theft was given security video of two suspects and surveillance video of the red Ford Expedition they were associated with, Lt. Juli McConkey said.

On Monday of last week, the officer who took that report spotted the SUV and pulled it over, identifying one suspect, a 24-year-old man, and finding “the SUV was filled with recently stolen merchandises from various retailers throughout the city,” McConkey said in a news release.

The officer also identified a storage unit the man rented, sought and was granted a search warrant and found several stolen items there as well, the lieutenant said. The suspect was first taken to St. Charles Bend, then to the Deschutes County Jail last Thursday.

The investigation turned up a second suspect, a 50-year-old man. He was contacted, a search warrant granted and several stolen items were found in his apartment, McConkey said. He, too, was arrested taken to the county jail.

Police were able to identify and return the stolen property to Sportsman’s Warehouse, Bi-Mart, Fred Meyer and Walmart, McConkey said.