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A Sears employee is accused of stealing $3,700 from fraudulent returns and reward points.
Kyle T. Elkins, 22, of West Allis was charged on Aug. 28 in Waukesha County Circuit Court with theft in a business setting. He faces 3½ years in prison if convicted.
City of Brookfield police began investigating when store security personnel alerted them March 13. Two other employees had already been arrested and security staff told police a third was now implicated, according to the criminal complaint.
He stated Elkins stole approximately $3,700. Elkins had been doing multiple fraudulent activities throughout his employment at Sears.
Elkins, who started working for Sears around August 2017, allegedly fraudulently obtained rewards points for an account by fraudulently returning items and keeping them and issuing himself gift cards
.In the Sears and K-Mart rewards program, when a customer purchases items, they receive reward points and the Elkins would use customer purchases to obtain rewards points on his own fraudulent rewards account that was created, the complaint said
Elkins would transfer fraudulent rewards point to this account in several different ways. One way is by ringing up a customer and using their purchase to credit awards points on his own account. In another instance, Elkins processes a return when no merchandise was present for that return, the complaint said.
In one incident, Elkins brings up a $159.99 impact wrench and overrode the wrench down to $122.22. He then uses his fraudulently obtained rewards points to purchase the item.
In another instance, he rang himself up using his own cashier key for a 189-piece mechanics tool set valued at $100. He overrode the price down to $10 and used his rewards points account to pay for that item. A number of the fraudulent rewards transactions were captured on video footage, the complaint said.
Brookfield police said Elkins didn't want to make any statements before being placed under arrest.