TOLEDO, Ohio – Three people were convicted in Ohio court this week for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of furniture from an American Freight store in Toledo.
The three defendants – Kevin Kinyon, Carlitos Cole and Angelino Carter – stole $300,000 from the store in a string of thefts last year. According to a police report from August 2022, Carter would walk around the store taking pictures of furniture and post them to Facebook Marketplace. The items would then be sold for half the store’s asking price. The other defendants were seen on camera loading furniture into a vehicle without purchasing it.
Kinyon, who faced the most serious charges of the three, was sentenced to three years of community control, or a form of house arrest. Carter and Cole were sentenced to 180 days at a corrections center in Northwest Ohio. Five others are facing a theft charge.
In total, the American Freight store suffered around a half-million-dollar loss.
Retail crime, violence and theft are impacting retail at unprecedented levels, according to the National Retail Federation. A September study found the average shrink rate in FY 2022 increased to 1.6%, up from 1.4% in FY 2021. When taken as a percentage of total retail sales in 2022, that shrink represents $112.1 billion in losses.