A few of you sent me the story about a mother-and-son team who stole more than $2 million in toys from various retailers across the country.
Michael Pollara, 46, and his 70-year-old mother, Margaret Pollara, were charged with stealing merchandise from 31 Toy R Us stores in Florida alone.
Authorities alleged that the pair would shoplift using the “box stuffing” method that involves emptying the box of a cheaper item in the store and filling it with more expensive goods.
They would then pay the box’s lower sticker price at checkout.
Authorities charged that the son usually switched the toys while his mother acted as a lookout, the Associated Press reports.
The goods were then allegedly sold online, the AP reports. At the time of the arrest, according to court documents, Pollara had more than $900,000 in eBay and PayPal accounts.
Authorities said they were able to track the son’s movements across the country because he used a Toys R Us rewards card for his purchases.
He used a rewards card? Seriously?
Anyway, here’s the silver lining to this story: maybe getting fleeced to the tune of $2 million will finally encourage big-box stores to create some policies to minimize toy aisle trollage. I mean, probably not, but maybe.
