Eau Claire police say they arrested three people from Minneapolis who are responsible for thefts throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota at various retail stores.
The Eau Claire Police Department said in a Tuesday press release that officers responded to Oakwood Mall on Nov. 6 on a report of a retail theft. Loss prevention staff at Scheels All Sports reported that a suspect from a Nov. 1 theft had returned to the store. In that incident, the suspect took a fish finder valued at $3,500, police said.
The suspect was observed with two other people. As officers gathered information, a second call came in of a theft that had occurred at an Ulta Beauty. The description of the parties involved matched the suspects from Scheels.
The three people were contacted and identified as Kenneth Machen, 21, of Minneapolis; Roberta Howard, 19, of Minneapolis; and Leslie Robinson, 64, of Minneapolis.
Police say they learned through the course of their investigation that the group was responsible for thefts throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota at various retail stores.
Using a theft tracking database, loss prevention staff were able to link the group to thefts in other locations, according to police. In total, police believe the group is associated with over $150,000 in documented thefts across multiple jurisdictions.
Robinson, Machen and Howard are all facing retail theft charges in Eau Claire County.
As KARE 11 first reported, Robinson has at least 70 theft-related convictions in Minnesota and 19 open cases. According to the outlet, Howard is his granddaughter and he recruited her to help him steal starting when she was just 14.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
