Police: Man alters price on high-end fishing equipment at Scheels
Sep. 15—EAU CLAIRE — A Medford man altered the price of high-end fishing equipment at the Eau Claire Scheels store, police said.
The man ended up paying $550 less than the actual cost of the equipment. The man also has an arrest warrant for a similar incident involving fishing equipment in St. Croix County, police said.
Clinton D. Boyles, 40, was charged this week in Eau Claire County Court with felony counts of retail theft by altering price and bail jumping.
A warrant has been issued for Boyles' arrest.
According to the criminal complaint:
A man entered the Scheels store on July 21 and selected two fishing rods valued at $650 each.
The man browses through several departments and selected a shirt.
While in the archery department, the man appears to place a homemade barcode on the tags of the two fishing rods. The man uses the shirt to block the view of anyone walking by.
After browsing some more, the man returns to the fishing department and puts the rods back where he found them.
He then purchases a few items and leaves the store.
The man came back into the store an hour later and took the same two fishing rods up to a cash register. The cashier called an assistant store leader for assistance when one of the rods scanned for a price of $14.99.
The man told the cashier he was going to get another rod from the fishing department. He then left the store.
The man returned to the store three days later and selected one of the $650 fishing rods. It appears as if he places a homemade tag on the rod as he did three days earlier. He used a shirt to block the view of the rod while doing this.
After walking around the store for a few minutes, the man took the rod to a cash register. The rod is scanned and comes up as a rod valued at $100. The cashier doesn't notice the homemade tag and completes the purchase for $550 less than the actual value of the fishing rod.
The man then leaves the store.
The man was identified as Boyles after his probation agent viewed the surveillance video from Scheels.
Authorities then learned that Boyles has an active arrest warrant from St. Croix County for a July incident where he was altering prices on high-end fishing electronics at a Fleet Farm store.
At the time of the Eau Claire incident, Boyle was free on bond for a pending felony case in Marathon County. As a condition of bond, Boyles was prohibited from committing any new crimes.
If convicted of the two charges in the Eau Claire incident, Boyles could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
