Sheriff: Hard drives returned, filled with putty

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is looking for two men they say stole over $6100 worth of products from 16 Central Florida Target stores.

"It’s a very, very common type of fraud called return or refund fraud," says Director of the Loss Prevention Research Council at UF, Dr. Read Hayes.

The research scientist says though using putty to fill empty hard drive cases is a unique touch, refund fraud has been around about 20 years. In this case, the Sheriff’s Office says the crooks opened the boxes, and then replaced the hardware inside the external hard drives with the putty.

Investigators say the thieves matched it with the weight of the hardware, so sales associates could not tell the difference during the returns.

Dr. Hayes says their handy work is taking money out of your pocket. He says U.S. retailers estimate shoplifting costs them between $17 billion to $20 billion a year. He adds that you’re paying $200 to $500 more per household in increased product prices, so that retailers can recoup some of their losses.

"The twists continue to change on how they commit refund fraud. It’s unfortunately, very common and it’s billions of dollars a year.”

You’re asked to call the Polk County Sheriff’s Office with any information you may have about this crime.