Man charged in string of Capital City Mall, Trader Joe’s shopping cart wallet thefts

Lower Allen Township police have charged a Middletown, N.Y. man in connection with a series of shopping cart wallet thefts at West Shore retails outlets dating back to June 2021.

Arrest warrants were issued this week for Charles Brown, 59, after police were able to confirm he had rented a car investigators tied to the most recent of the thefts, on Dec. 18 at Capital City Mall in Lower Allen Township.

Police then conducted a search of Brown’s cell phone, and its data showed that he had also been in the area of three other similar thefts in Lower Allen Township dating to June 25, 2021 at Capital City Mall; and June 25, 2022 and Sept. 30, 2022 at Trader Joe’s.

In each of the cases, images of the suspect were captured when he used one of the victims’ credit cards to make same day purchases at stores including Best Buy, Target and Walmart with a total value of more than $5,000.

In the last case, the footage also captured the suspect’s car leaving the scene of a purchase, leading to Brown’s initial identification. Police then pulled Brown’s driver’s license photo and found it matched with images of suspects from the other shopping cart heists.

Police have issued a warrant for Brown’s arrest.

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