Police are searching for a third suspect in a fraudulent coupon scam, and say the case is no trivial matter. The perpetrators are stealing hundreds of dollars in merchandise per day from local stores in Brick and Toms River using phony $10 coupons.
Police have identified two of the suspects but are now seeking a third, Brick police said in a statement.
The scam is apparently being run at local Stop and Shop supermarkets. The suspects, according to police, are using homemade phony vouchers worth $10 each to trick the self checkout computer into believing that value in merchandise should be free.
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“The vouchers are being scanned at several locations, multiple times a day,” the statement from police said. “The suspects are walking away with several hundred dollars each day in unpaid merchandise.”
A photo of a new, female suspect in the scam, was recently discovered in video surveillance with a previous female suspect from Monday. She is observed trying to cash out a large order of paper products and cleaning supplies at the register, but was stopped by a store employee. She left the items at the register and subsequently left the store before the employee could identify her, according to police.
She was seen leaving the store with the female suspect already identified on June 1.
Police have not released the names of the two suspects who have already been identified.
Police are asking one again, that anyone who can identify the female pictured, contact Detective Robert Shepherd of the Brick Police Department at 732-262-1121 or Detective Robert O’Neil of the Toms River Police Department at 732-349-0150 ext. 1255.