News Releases

For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 4, 2013

In July of 2012, detectives from the 3rd District Investigative Section and the 4th District Petty Crimes Unit received information regarding a fraud scheme occurring in Nordstrom stores in the metro area. Nordstrom loss prevention officers discovered that a group of individuals were fraudulently returning items to their stores.

Detectives began to investigate the fraud and identified four suspects involved in the scheme. Investigators also determined that the suspects were committing the same type of fraud at optical stores owned by Luxottica-Group. The scheme would begin with one of the suspects purchasing an item at the store and obtaining a gift receipt and a standard purchase receipt. One of the suspects would then visit another store location and return the legitimately purchased item without a receipt and would obtain cash. Suspects would then complete two additional transactions by returning identical items to the one purchased using the gift receipt and standard receipt. The suspects would receive cash refunds. Detectives continue to investigate the origin of the credit cards used to initially purchase the items and the origin of the merchandise used to complete the second and third transactions.

On April 3, 2013, three suspects involved in the scheme were arrested on the strength of Montgomery County arrest warrants. The three suspects that have been arrested are identified as : Charmaine Rogers, age 38, of the 2300 block of North Pulaski Street in Baltimore; Antwine Finch, age 31, of the 5000 block of Clifton Avenue in Baltimore; Kenyon Saunders, age 24, of the 5000 block of Clifton Avenue in Baltimore. Finch used to be employed by Nordstrom.

The fourth suspect, who has an active warrant for his arrest, is identified as : Les Royal Brown, age 24, of an unconfirmed address. Detectives are asking anyone with information about the whereabouts of Brown to please call Detective O'Brien at 301-565-7740.

The suspects have been charged with numerous crimes to include: multiple counts of theft, theft scheme over $1,000, conspiracy to commit theft over $1,000, and multiple counts of trespassing.

On April 3, search warrants were executed at the homes of Finch, Saunders, and Rogers. Approximately $200,000 worth of merchandise believed to be stolen was recovered from the residences. The merchandise is from a number of companies. Detectives have determined that in 2012, these four suspects collectively were responsible for thirty fraudulent transactions at the Nordstrom in Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda.

This fraud scheme is an on-going investigation. Anyone with information about this scheme or the suspects involved is asked to call Detective O'Brien at 301-565-7740. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Brown is asked to call Detective O'Brien at 301-565-7740 or Detective Vendemio at 240-773-5476. You can also call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to them that leads to an arrest and/or indictment of Brown for this felony crime.

RLI