Caught on Tape: Sam's Club Employee Charged with Theft

Police arrested a 26-year-old Sam's Club employee after they said he was seen stealing merchandise from the store's inventory warehouse.

Mario R. Terry, of the 11300 block of South Lowe Avenue in Chicago, was charged with theft around 10:50 p.m. Wednesday after cops were called to the Sam's Club at 16100 Harlem Ave., in Tinley Park. The store's asset protection manager had done an audit on the store's electronics merchandise and noticed that items were missing, she said in the report. When she went into the warehouse to investigate, she noticed a security camera pointed toward the wall.

According to the report, she reviewed the footage and saw that on June 24 around 11 p.m., Terry was shown entering the stockroom and looking in the secured electronic inventory room. The footage showed that the next day around 1:50 a.m., Terry re-entered the area, and about an hour later, a wood board is shown hitting the security camera and knocking it away. After the incident, the employee found that one Canon camera, valued at $166.80, and five 64GB Apple iPads, valued at $2,698, were missing from the room.

The employee re-positioned the security camera on July 11, she said, and on July 13, she again noticed that it was facing the wall. She reviewed the footage, which showed Terry entering the stockroom late on July 11.

A July 13 audit found the following items were missing: one HP Intel Core Notebook, valued at $999; two black Mini DUO Intel Atoms, $943.58; one Sony digital camera, $187.94; four Apple iPads, $1,876; and one Apple iPad 2, $629. The total value of the missing items was $4,635.52, the report said.

Police said that when they approached the office and asked Terry what was going on, he said, "I took the items and am truly sorry, I will do anything to pay back Sam's Club."

Terry and several other employees collaborated in the thefts, according to the report.