3 men accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of items from Central Mass. box stores
WORCESTER ― Police say a trio of out-of-state thieves stole close to $4,000 worth of merchandise this weekend from Target and Lowe’s Home Improvement, both at Lincoln Plaza, and an undisclosed amount of merchandise from The Home Depot in Oxford.
George Gvelesiani, 35, of Philadelphia; Vakhtang Barkalaia, 41, of New York City; and Giorgi Adeishvili, 41, of Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, are all charged with larceny over $1,200 and receiving stolen property over $1,200. In addition, Gvelesiani and Adeishvili were each charged with five counts of unlawful deactivation or removal of a theft-detection device.
Sunday, police responded to reported shoplifting at the Target. A description of the three suspects, as well as the vehicle they left in, was provided to police. The vehicle was stopped not far away on Lincoln Street, according to the statement of facts written by Officer Marisa Gaspar.
According to Gaspar’s report, the three men stole $2,629.53 worth of merchandise from Target, plus an additional $1,253.87 worth of merchandise from Lowe’s.
Video surveillance shows Gvelesiani and Adeishvili concealing items belonging to Target and leaving the store without paying, Gaspar wrote. In addition, she wrote, the video shows the two removing the theft-detection devices from five individual items.
According to the report, Barkalaia dropped off Gvelesiani and Adeishvili and picked them up when they came out while carrying concealed merchandise stuffed in their clothes.
Barkalaia “actively participated by having his vehicle running and waiting for the other two people to come out of the store and picking them up approximately 20 feet from the store exit,” according to Gaspar’s report.
During the traffic stop, police found the merchandise belonging to Target and Lowe’s in the vehicle, Gaspar wrote. The stolen merchandise was stuffed into a plastic bag in the back of the vehicle and “there were many more bags” inside, the report said.
Merchandise from The Home Depot in Oxford was also found inside the same bags as the merchandise taken from the two Worcester stores, according to the statement of facts.
The report did not describe the items that were stolen.
An arraignment for the three men, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed to March 29, in Worcester Central District Court.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 3 charged with organized retail theft from Worcester Target, Lowe's
