Urbandale Man Charged in Scam at West Des Moines Costco Store Said Request Seemed ‘Shady’

One person has been arrested and another is being sought in connection with a scam in which customers of the membership warehouse club in West Des Moines .

arrested William Joseph Freeman, 40, of 3225 68th St., Urbandale, on Thursday and charged him with third-degree theft. The scam involved thieves allegedly switching the pricing labels on the $980 Hewlett Packard TouchSmart computers with those for Blu-Ray DVD players, which sold for $90.

Freeman told police he was between jobs and accepted $40 from a friend he identified as Roberto Dominiquez, even though he thought the arrangement was “shady,” according to Officer Matthew Granzow’s report on file at the police department.

Police have named Dominiquez a person of interest in the investigation. Costco store authorities say that surveillance video over the past week shows a group of four individuals coming into the store and attaching bar codes from the Blu-Ray players to computers, then buying the computers.

Dominiquez’s Costco membership card had been flagged and when Freeman allegedly tried to use it, police were summoned. He denied switching the bar codes, but told authorities he knew which computer to put in his cart because Dominiquez had left it somewhat ajar on the shelf on a previous visit.

Granzow wrote in his report that a review of the video suggests a different story. On it, Freeman was seen reaching around the computer box while it was still on the shelf, then placing it in the cart with the side with the bar code facing the rear of the cart.

Police said that Freeman did not appear to check prices of the computers or look at any other brands in the area. Once the box was in the cart, it appeared “Freeman spent a lot of time handling the side of the box the bar code was located on,” Granzow wrote.

The officer reported that en route to the West Des Moines Jail, “Freeman told me that he was sorry for wasting my time … and that he needed extra cash because he was in between jobs.”

He allegedly admitted that he had been in Costco the previous week and had purchased the same computer with a woman he knew only as Michelle.

Police seized Dominiquez’s Costco card. According to Granzow’s report, Freeman wanted the name of the West Des Moines detective working the case so he could contact him when Dominiquez calls again.