A Florida man has been charged in connection with a retail-theft ring that authorities say stole more than $1.4 million in merchandise from Home Depot and sold it to buyers online.

Robert Dell, 56, was charged with racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and dealing in stolen property. He was formerly a pastor at The Rock Church near Tampa and worked with the recovery program affiliated with it. Officials say he sold the goods on an eBay store titled, "Anointed Liquidator"

Prosecutors say he worked with four others, including his wife and mother, who were also charged in connection to the case.

Dell pleaded not guilty, and the private attorney representing him declined to comment on the case as it is still ongoing. The Rock Church posted a statement about Robert Dell on it's website days after his arrest in August. "Just to clear the record. Robert Dell is NOT the pastor of The Rock Church. He wasn’t the founding pastor either. He was the pastor when it was named the Rock Community Church and Transformation Center, and hasn’t been a pastor for the last 2 1/2 years," the statement read.

As corporations raise alarm bells about rising retail theft affecting their bottom line, this investigation offers a look into how prosecutors say these schemes operate.

Home Depot and prosecutors coordinated to catch the 'fence'

Home Depot worked with law enforcement to track Dell, who prosecutors described as a fence, the middle man collecting stolen goods to reselling them, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to a search warrant affidavit obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Home Depot loss-prevention investigators saw two people leaving a Florida store in March with two cordless impact wrenches and cordless die grinders without paying. The investigators provided vehicle information on the suspects to law enforcement.

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Department kept an eye on them over the next two months, and saw them visit stores in seven counties, according to the Wall Street Journal. They would then drop off the goods in a garage later identified as belonging to Dell.

Officers arrested those two people in June. One of them told law enforcement that she had been working with Dell for five years, and at one point, she was making up to $10,000 a day working for him, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody's announcement of Dell's arrest in August, Dell's wife and mother would assist with packaging them and selling them online. Investigators say that Dell sold the merchandise under an eBay store named the "Anointed Liquidator." According to the website, it is been active since 2011 and sold 35,000 items.

EBay told the Wall Street Journal that they had flagged the account in 2017 for selling a large inventory of goods retailers identify as targets for thieves. The account was shut down earlier this year, the company said.

Organized retail theft is a growing concern for corporations

According to a report by USA TODAY, concern over retail theft is on the rise for big corporations, but lagged reporting makes it hard to assess how much theft has actually impacted the bottom line this year.

• Missing inventory, or "shrinkage" as it is known to corporations, was discussed more on 2023 Q2 quarterly earnings calls than any other quarter on record.
• Home Depot’s chief financial officer said in May that the company's gross margin fell 33.7% in Q1 of this year, and shrinkage was largely to blame.
• A 2023 National Retail Federation survey showed that shrinkage, primarily driven by theft, cost retailers $112.1 billion last year. This is up from $93.9 billion of shrinkage in 2021, but the average rate is only up by a portion of a percent.
• NRF research shows that these crimes tend to be clustered in specific places. The 2023 report shows that the, the biggest hotspots were Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New York City and Seattle. Atlanta, Sacramento, Chicago, Denver, Miami and Albuquerque also made the top ten.

FORCE and U.S. INFORM Consumers Act target retail theft

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody touted the arrest as part of a multiagency collaboration.

In December 2021, Moody announced the Florida Organized Retail Crime Exchange (FORCE) taskforces to aid investigators in identifying suspects and gathering evidence. It includes an invite-only database for retailers, law enforcement and prosecutors to share information on theft incidents.

In April 2023, FORCE was also involved in the arrest of four people who allegedly were involved in an organized retail theft operation that spanned 16 counties in Florida, costing Home Depot an estimated $1.1 million.

In announcing FORCE, Moody pointed to cities outside of Florida as the hubs for organized retail crime, saying, "we are seeing lawlessness and out-of-control mobs preying on businesses and consumers in major cities outside of Florida, and we will not allow these crime sprees to harm Floridians or our retailers." Though according to NRF research, Miami has been in the top five cities affected by organized retail crime between 2017 and 2021.

Still, the rise in incidents across the country has prompted Congress to take action too. The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces (INFORM) Consumers Act took effect June 27, requiring online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay to gather more information about high-volume sellers. The Federal Trade Commission suggests this will help counter online fraud and ensure only legitimate sellers use the online marketplaces.