Thread: IL-Bar code scheme could cost Serbian man U.S. residency

Bar code scheme could cost Serbian man U.S. residency


March 11, 2010

A Crown Point man is accused of running an elaborate scheme using fake bar codes to purchase products from Lowe's for less than their actual price.
He did all that while facing deportation for being in the country illegally.

According to a filing in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, Branko Nenadic, 26, would print his own bar codes on sticky labels and then go into Lowe's stores throughout the country. He would put the fake bar codes on products, creating a new and lower price, and buy them, usually at a self-service checkout station.

Nenadic would then do one of two things with the products. He would either sell them on eBay under his username Banci219 or enlist one of seven people he was working with to return the product to a different store with the fake bar code taken off, meaning they would get the full price of the item.

They would receive store credit because they didn't have a receipt and would then give it to Nenadic, who used the store credit to buy more items, according to the complaint.

Lowe's became aware of the scheme when he attempted to buy a chain saw box from the Hamburg, N.Y., store but got flustered when the self-checkout machine told him he needed an override from a manager, according to the criminal complaint. He ended up walking out of the store without the item -- and the fake bar code.

Lowe's security officials eventually tracked him down through store video and records, which showed he lived in Crown Point. The company claims that he committed the scheme at 91 stores in 14 states, making 185 purchases overall. Lowe's says it lost $69,272, according to the complaint.

They eventually contacted authorities, including the U.S. Secret Service, and discovered he had been arrested in February 2009 in Sierra, Texas, by a border patrol agent. He admitted that he was a Serbian national who had entered the country in June 2006 on a valid visa but that he wasn't supposed to stay longer than six months. He never left, however, and he's been going through deportation hearings in Texas. He had been released on a $12,000 bond, according to the criminal complaint.

Nenadic was arrested and had his initial appearance Thursday. He was ordered to be detained.


http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/20971 ... 10.article

Millions of illegal aliens from Mexico are involved in illegal entry, illegal re-entry, ID theft, welfare fraud, etc.
and they find this one guy for making fake bar codes?