Broward BJ’s employee had illegal side hustle, cops say: Shipping stolen store goods across US

PARKLAND, Fla. — A BJ’s Wholesale Club employee is facing charges after Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said the company’s home office caught on to his illegal side hustle: Stealing and selling store items.

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Deputies took John Stevens, 52, of Boca Raton, into custody on Monday.

According to investigators, an anonymous tip alerted BJ’s management to a scheme in which Stevens was stealing company merchandise and selling it for profit, even shipping the goods directly from the store to the people he was selling it to.

Authorities said the thefts occurred between March and June at the store at 5901 W. Hillsboro Blvd. in Parkland.

Stevens was seen on surveillance camera taking merchandise from the sales floor, bringing it to a shipping room and using the store’s UPS shipping computer to send the goods to locations across the United States, including his own home, according to an arrest form. Authorities said he was advertising and selling the products on eBay and Facebook.

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Deputies said Stevens shipped stolen property on 27 separate occasions and cost the company around $10,000 in financial loss.

He is facing charges of grand theft of more than $10,000 but less than $20,000, organized dealing in stolen property and 25 separate charges of dealing in stolen property.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Stevens was being held at the Broward County Mail Jail on a $25,000 bond.

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