SILENT WITNESS

Feb. 1, 2010

Jan 31, 2010, 11:43 PM | Updated: Jun 5, 2012, 4:22 am

PHOENIX – These guys think they’re pretty slick, but now police are onto them.

Phoenix Police Sergeant Darren Burch described a crime that took place on November 18, 2009 at a Sportsman’s Warehouse in Mesa, off of Greenfield Road.

“It is an unusual crime in the sense that the suspects don’t look like your typical suspects,” Burch explained. “One of the suspects is dressed in a suit and tie, and he looks like he’s going to church, not to a crime.”

This suspect is accompanied by another man who wears jeans and a t-shirt.

“He is the diversion,” Burch said of the man dressed in plain clothes. “He simply talks to the different clerks and so forth while the guy in the suit actually leans over the counter and picks up a very high-end, expensive item, and he leaves without anyone ever even noticing him.”

In this case, he stole a $1600 scope.

“And they don’t actually even discover the theft until after the fact, months later, when they realize there’s a discrepancy in the inventory,” Burch said.

“And that’s what our concern is as detectives is are these guys getting away this, and businesses aren’t even aware they’re a victim until at the end of inventory.”

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