Roundup of crime at Myrtle Beach Home Depot

Multiple shopliftings, fraudulent returns and a nearby homicide have all occurred at the Myrtle Beach Home Depot store at 951 Oak Forest Lane so far this year, according to police reports.

That location has seen more crime through the first half of 2015 than the same period last year, and police have filed more incident reports at the Oak Forest Lane location than they have at Home Depot locations in Murrells Inlet and North Myrtle Beach combined.

Read more police reports about various incidents that have occurred at Home Depot at 951 Oak Forest Lane and Seaboard Street Wal-Mart in Myrtle Beach:

Obtaining goods under false pretenses

▪ A man was arrested and charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses after police said he took paint off a Home Depot store shelf and then returned it for cash, using a receipt he told police he found in the parking lot.

Police were called about 9:30 a.m. Feb. 11 to Home Depot at 951 Oak Forest Lane where a 37-year-old loss-prevention associate reported the incident, according a to police report.

The store employee told police that Gary Nickerson, 35, was seen taking paint from a store shelf. Nickerson was detained by the employee after he returned the items in the store for cash, police said. The paint cans matched items listed on a receipt Nickerson said he found in the store parking lot, authorities said.

Nickerson was taken to the Myrtle Beach Jail. He was later found guilty and was given the choice of a fine or 30 days in jail, according to public records.

▪ Police were called about 4 p.m. Jan. 27 when a loss-prevention associate saw Jeret Lloyd Cox, 26, select several items, including a bath faucet, fans and knives, and put different sale tags over the original sale stickers and purchase the items, authorities said.

Cox was arrested and charged with obtaining goods under false pretensions. He was later found guilty and was ordered to serve time in jail or pay a fine, according to public records.

2 shoplifting incidents, 1 day

Myrtle Beach police responded to two separate shoplifting incidents at Home Depot May 5, which led to three arrests, according to police reports.

▪ Christopher Stromberg, 28, was charged with shoplifting and taken to the Myrtle Beach Jail.

A loss-prevention employee told police that he saw Stromberg enter the store empty-handed then get a shopping cart. The employee said Stromberg then placed six paint cans in the cart and left without paying for them, police said.

The employee approached Stromberg after he left the store and escorted him to the loss-prevention office, according to the report. He later plead guilty and his case was disposed.

▪ Officers were called to the store again about 12:15 p.m. May 5 when police received a call about a shoplifting that had just happened, authorities said.

Jesse Allen Smith, 23, and Donna Lee Rolfe, 46, were both arrested and charged with shoplifting at a pawn shop after the shoplifting incident, police said.

Rolfe was also charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses.

A loss-prevention employee at Home Depot told police he saw Smith in select drills in the tool section of the store, and then he pushed a cart with the drills outside through a store emergency fire exit, according to the report.

Police said Smith then grabbed the tools and got in a maroon Subaru and left the area.

The Subaru was seen at a pawn shop at 1118 Third Ave. S., and police said they saw Rolfe leaving the shop when they arrived.

Officers followed Rolfe to her car and detained her and Smith. The store employee came to the pawn shop and identified Smith in the Subaru as the person and car he saw at the store in connection with the shoplifting, police said.

The tools taken from Home Depot were inside the pawn shop and were recovered by police.

Smith and Rolfe later plead guilty and their cases were disposed.

Pair of alleged shoplifters

Officers were called about 2 p.m. April 28 to the Home Depot at 951 Oak Forest Lane in reference to men taking merchandise from store shelves, and then taking the items to the return counter for cash on a store credit card, authorities said.

A 37-year-old store employee told police that he saw a man enter the store through the lumber-section entrance and select several items from store shelves and put them in his cart.

The man then pushed the cart toward the return counter and called another man over, who took the items to the counter for the return and got a refund for the items on a store credit card, which totaled to more than $500, police said.

Anthony J. Stapleton, 33, was later charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses in connection with the incident.

He later plead guilty and ordered to pay a fine or serve time in jail, and his case was disposed.

Authorities said Stapleton was also seen in the store April 21, at which time he took five rolls of poultry net and four rolls of cloth from store shelves, and then took the items to the return counter.

Police said the man got more than $400 for the merchandise on a store credit card, which was never paid for, at that time.

Stapleton later plead guilty and was ordered to pay a fine or serve jail time, and his case was disposed.

Stolen cars found in Wal-Mart parking lot

Officers patrolling a Myrtle Beach Wal-Mart parking lot found stolen out-of-state cars twice in the same week, according to police reports.

▪ On March 25, an officer was on patrol at about 9 a.m. when he noticed a car with T-shirts covering the windows, according to the report.

The officer ran the license plate, and a report came back that the Pontiac Vibe was stolen from Lawrence County, Ohio.

Paul Rockel, 30, was arrested in connection with being in possession of a stolen vehicle, police said.

According to authorities, Rockel claimed he was the owner of the vehicle, but police determined that he was wanted by the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio in connection with theft and that the vehicle was stolen.

Rockel later plead guilty to the charge for possession of a stolen car and was sentenced to time served, according to records.

▪ While patrolling Wal-Mart on Seaboard Street at about 11:40 p.m. March 27, an officer found a white BMW with the windows down. The officer discovered that the car was reported stolen out of Iredell County, N.C., after running the license plate number through information systems, according to a police report.

Nakeiya Inesha Parris, 19, was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, police said.

Horry County public index records show Parris later plead guilty to the possession of a stolen vehicle charge, was ordered time served, and her case was disposed.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Roundup of crime at Myrtle Beach Home Depot."