California Men Charged In Fraudulent Gift Card Case At Enfield Target

ENFIELD, CT — A pair of men from California were arrested Wednesday afternoon in connection with a scheme involving the placement of fraudulent gift cards inside the Target store at Enfield Square.

Police were called to the store around 3:25 p.m. for a reported larceny, and made contact with loss prevention personnel who had detained the two men after they had attempted to put the fraudulent cards on hooks for sale. If used by an unsuspecting consumer, the cards would allow the suspects to transfer any funds put on the card back off the card to an account they had access to, Police Chief Alaric Fox said.

Following a lengthy investigation and interaction with Target personnel, additional gift cards were located and the men were arrested, Fox said.

Guangming Li, 28, of Los Angeles and Linjian Li, 32, of San Gabriel, were charged with multiple counts of first-degree larceny and payment card theft, as well as organized retail theft and sixth-degree larceny. Each was held in lieu of $750,000 bond, and they were slated to be arraigned Thursday in Hartford Superior Court.

The investigation is ongoing, Fox said.