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Crime & Safety

Present-Shopping Couple Swindled by Fake Toys 'R' Us Employee

The following information was supplied by the Dearborn Police Department. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.

OUTSIDE DETROIT, MI -- A couple buying toys and electronics at a local Toys 'R' Us was tricked out of their money, according to police reports.

The Inkster couple was planning on purchasing two cartfulls of goods at the Dearborn Toys 'R' Us on Saturday afternoon when they were approached by a man who claimed to be an employee of the toy store. According to the report, the man told the pair that he worked in the stock department, but could check them out at the electronics register, since the lines were so long.

The couple agreed and pulled up to the register. The man asked them for cash for the goods and said that he would start ringing them up, but that they should go find another item to take advantage of a good sale. They complied, handing him $180 in cash and leaving the man with their goods.

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When they returned, the man—and their money—was gone.

A Dearborn police check of the store's surveillance video revealed that he had walked out of the store around 3:30 p.m. and left in a car. Police could not identify the make or model of the car, due to the poor quality of the video.

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The couple, however, provided a description of the suspect as a black male between the ages of 50-55, standing at 5-foot-11 and weighing around 250 pounds. He had grey hair, and was wearing a tan hat, black pants and a tan Carhartt jacket over a grey hooded sweatshirt.

Police were unable to locate the man.

For questions on this crime report, email dearborn@patch.com.

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