Temecula Man Arrested in Connection to Massive Organized Retail Theft from Ralphs Grocery Stores

Jail booking photos show, left to right: Charles Cherry, Froilan Garcia and Dean Thompson. COURTESY: Riverside Police Department.

Police announced Thursday the arrest of three Riverside County men who are accused of taking part in organized retail crime targeting the Ralphs grocery chain.

According to Riverside Police Sgt. C. Hardin, the arrests come after an investigation that was first launched several months ago-- back in June 2014-- when police learned of “...large scale thefts that totaled over $1 million in missing product” from the grocery company.

“Detectives and Organized Retail Crime (ORC) investigators formulated an investigative strategy and discovered several employees were conspiring in an ongoing scheme to financially benefit from organized retail theft from within the facility,” Hardin said in a news release.

Together with investigators from Ralphs, Riverside PD was able to peg some suspects in the case, and ultimately issued search warrants for some residences owned by employees of the Ralphs Grocery Distribution Center in Riverside, according to Hardin.

“The results of the search warrants revealed over $20,000 in stolen product in the residence of one of the employees,” the sergeant said. “Further investigation revealed an online business responsible for over $80,000 in sales of stolen Ralphs product in a 60 day period.”

On Wednesday, police said they were finally able to make some arrests in the case.

34-year-old Dean Thompson from Temecula, 57-year-old Froilan Garcia from Romoland and 48-year-old Charles Cherry from Colton were each arrested on multiple theft and embezzlement charges, according to Hardin.

Jail records indicate that Thompson posted $100,000 bail the same day. Garcia’s bail was set significantly lower at $5,000, which he also posted Wednesday. Cherry remained jailed as of Thursday afternoon.