Carson City man arrested for commercial burglary following string of thefts at regional Home Improvement stores
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Sat, 01/30/2021 - 10:22am
A 47-year-old Carson City man was arrested in the area of Market Street for felony commercial burglary and felony attempted grand larceny.
On Wednesday, Jan. 20, a Home Depot Asset Protection Officer reported a commercial burglary to Carson City Sheriff’s Office deputy.
The officer reported that a known theft suspect, Brent Michael Akers, had attempted to steal merchandise from the Carson City Home Depot.
The officer stated that at around 5:24 p.m., a male customer brought a shopping cart with boxes to the lumber cashier for check out. Per Home Depot policy, the cashier informed the customer he was going to open the boxes to check the contents.
At this point the customer abandoned the transaction and exited the store, walking to a life white GMC Sierra pickup.
The cashier alerted a manager of the incident, and the manager recognized the customer and his truck as Brent Akers from previous theft alerts.
The officer told deputies Akers had been the subject of previous theft investigations by Home Depot and had previously been arrested for stealing from the store and had been trespassed from all Home Depot locations.
The officer told deputies they were also working with Lowe’s Asset Protection Officers in Reno, as Akers was also being investigated by Lowe’s AP for theft.
The officer advised Akers would engage in “box stuffing,” which is selecting boxed merchandise, removing the lower priced merchandise and insert ore expensive merchandise into the boxes. The suspect then would pay for the lower priced item labeled on the box.
When the Carson City Home Depot staff opened the boxes Akers abandoned they found they were full of numerous items including: 2 ring doorbell cameras, pipe wrenches, hammers, brass water hose bibs, pliers, screw drivers, tape measures, Roomba vacuums, crescent wrenches and batteries for power tools.
The value of the items in total amounted to $2,458.63.
Akers spent approximately two hours in the store selecting merchandise and placing them in boxes, according to the arrest report.
Deputies ran the registration on the GMC pickup and found it was registered to someone other than Akers. Home Depot reported that he Akers had driven the truck during multiple previous thefts from Home Depot in Reno.
Deputies located an address for Akers in Sparks, and on Jan. 21, they located the truck parked outside of the Sparks residence.
Deputies contacted a Sparks Police Officer and advised them of the investigation, and the officer stated they would keep an eye out for the truck.
On Jan. 28 at approximately 8 p.m., the Home Depot officer contacted deputies stating that Lowe’s AP had just caught Akers stuffing boxes in the Reno Lowe’s, and Akers had fled the store in the GMC.
Deputies contacted the Sparks officer and notified them of the incident. The Sparks Officer advised that the Sparks Police Department had cited Akers at a Walmart in Sparks for obtaining money under false pretenses and trespassing.
They advised Akers had provided another address in Sparks for the citation.
The Sparks officer went to the noted address and saw Akers driving away in the truck. They conducted a traffic stop and Carson City deputies drove to the scene to arrest Akers.
During an impounding of the truck for the suspended registration, they located a large number of tools and merchandise that appeared to be new from Home Depot and Lowe’s in the back of the truck.
Additionally, the Sparks officer located approximately one gram of methamphetamine and methamphetamine pipes in the truck. Akers admitted to possession of the methamphetamine.
The Sparks officer released Akers into the custody of Carson City deputies, stating they would request a warrant for Akers for the methamphetamine and traffic charges.
He was taken into custody without issue.
Bail: $30,000
All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) comes from the arrest reports supplied by the Carson City Sheriff's Office, and is considered by law to be public information. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The policy of Carson Now is to name anyone who is arrested for a felony offense.
