Crime & Safety

San Diego Area Ross Shoplifting Ring Sentenced

Three members of a shoplifting ring centered around Ross stores in San Diego County were sentenced.

from Ross Dress for Less stores around San Diego and in Santee over a two-year period were sentenced on Friday.

Benita Rubio, 47, and Heriberto Tolentino, 42, were each sentenced to two years in state prison, while Diana Palazios, 37, was sentenced to a full year in county jail, with no credits for good behavior, said prosecutor Anna Winn.

Maria Delaluz Oros, 46, and William Cruz Pena, 26, two others implicated in the ring, will be sentenced later.

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All five pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and receiving stolen property. The five had previously pleaded not guilty.

The shoplifters, all Mexican nationals who lived in San Marcos, were arrested Jan. 5 after being pulled over in Encinitas in two cars packed with an estimated $6,000 worth of clothes and accessories from a Ross clothing store. Due to the size of the load, Sgt. Tom Poulin said, they “could barely sit in the backseat of their cars.”  The women also had more items stuffed under their shirts and in their bras, he said.

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The retail larceny spree is believed to have gone on for at lest two years, with the bandits striking up to several times per week and getting away with roughly $150,000 worth of goods annually.

The thefts began last May at a store in Santee Town Center. An attempted theft at the same location several weeks later was interrupted when a security guard sent the shoplifters fleeing, Poulin said, but later that evening, the loss prevention officer’s vehicle was found vandalized in the store parking lot.  “All four tires had been slashed, and a chemical substance poured on the exterior of the car,'' he said.    

Similar vehicle vandalism crimes also occurred on six other occasions when burglars were caught in the act, according to investigators.

Authorities say the thieves were “brazen,” stuffing merchandise under their clothing, grabbing purses and filling them with other shoplifted goods and using tools they carried with them to cut off anti-theft alarm triggers. The shoplifters usually struck during the midweek, then sold the loot on the street and at a regular weekend swap meet in Oceanside, where they worked several sales booths and used a mobile miniature storage unit to store the stolen goods, Poulin said.

After the arrests, detectives served search warrants at two locations in North County. A storage box at the Oceanside Swap Meet grounds was found fully loaded with stolen merchandise from Ross stores and even more valuables were recovered from a house on Johnston Lane in San Marcos.

Additionally, a handwritten list of license plate numbers, which appear to be those of Ross employees, was found among the suspects’ property.

Palazios, Rubio and Tolentino will be sentenced March 18 by Vista Judge Kimberlee Lagotta, while Oros is scheduled for sentencing March 22 and Cruz Peña on May 3.

City News Service contributed to this story.


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