Former Home Depot Employee Arrested After Being Accused Of Stealing $18K Worth Of Merchandise

A former employee at a Home Depot department store in Cobb County, Georgia,  has been accused of giving contractors $18,000 worth of stolen merchandise.

According to WSB Radio, the former employee, Orin Turner, was arrested after investigators at the store found out that he was giving products to Julius Peterson as if he were a paying Home Depot customer. Turner would meet Peterson outside of the store on Cumberland Parkway to load the items into a truck. Some of those items ranged from gallons of paint and cases of porcelain tile to pallets of drywall and more. Turner informed investigators that he’d pocket $400 per order.

Police officials said that Peterson told them that he would receive the orders from Turner, deliver the items to contractors and then exchange the stolen items for cash. Court documents reveal that an internal investigation by Home Depot’s retail crime investigator saw the former employee loading Peterson’s truck and sometimes using a forklift.

The Townelaker reported that both Turner and Peterson were charged with multiple offenses in connection with the larceny and distribution of stolen property.

WSB Radio spoke to Wali Sabir, who has been a contractor for over five decades. He told the media outlet that when people steal property from a store like Home Depot, it forces the store to raise its prices to substantiate the increase that is passed on to customers.

“It’s not right, first of all,” Sabir said. “People really don’t understand that everybody pays more when those kinds of things happen.”

A reporter went to Turner’s residence to speak to him about the allegations levied against him, but a woman who said she knew him said that he had already moved out. The reporter also reached out to Peterson but wasn’t able to talk to him.

Read more