‘More people involved’: Moore police officer recalls finding nearly $300K of stolen Texas TVs

MOORE, Okla. ( KFOR ) — A Moore Police Department sergeant says a tip from an LG loss prevention representative and electronic trackers helped him track down nearly $300,000 worth of stolen TVs from Texas.

Moore Police sergeant Justin Sternberg says the TVs were found in an abandoned semi-truck trailer near a Moore business October 17.

“There’s a gentleman that works for the Loss Prevention Center, deals with major retail theft on behalf of LG,” said Sternberg. “He gave us a call reporting that there was a possible large trailer with stolen TVs inside, and he was pinging it based off of a security device on the TVs; and that’s what kind of led us onto it.”

Sternberg says the last pin the representative received before the trackers turned off or died had a radius between 5,000-6,000 meters, leaving a lot of ground to cover. Sternberg said he had prior intel that the business the trailer was found near dealt with the import and export of large semis. According to Sternberg, after investigating in the area, he found the trailer behind the business.

News 4’s John Hayes asked for his reaction once he realized what was inside.

“It was front to back,” said Sternberg. “There was a manifest inside that there was a quantity of 120, that’s pallets, and I believe there was upwards of four to seven TVs per pallet. So there was a large, a large amount of TVs in the back.”

Sternberg says the manifest also showed the TVs were supposed to be delivered from Fort Worth, Texas to a store on the eastern United States.

“They gave us the value amount at upwards of $300,000,” said Sternberg. “The shipment was destined for, I believe, New Jersey to Costco.”

News 4 reached out to the Fort Worth Police Department for comment and received the following:

On Thursday, October 17, 2024 at approximately 1415 hours, officers were dispatched to the LG warehouse located near the 14900 block of North Beach St. in regards to a theft call.

Upon arrival officers gathered information that a white Volvo truck removed the televisions without proper permission and left the location.

The trailer had a shipment of TVs valuing $290,000. The trailer and all contents were tracked to Moore, OK where it was recovered.

Fort Worth Police Department spokesperson

Sternberg said whoever stole the TVs used descriptive means to get them out of the warehouse in the first place.

“There was a forged Bill of Lading, so similar to a manifest, and after they basically showed up to the distribution center in Fort Worth with it, and then their truck got loaded with the quantity of TVs,” said Sternberg.

Sternberg says he believes it was a crime too complicated for someone to pull off alone.

“I would go on to say that it’s probably a large organizational thing,” said Sternberg. “We’re not talking one, we’re talking several, so hundreds at that point. So I definitely believe that there is probably more people involved.”

News 4 asked Moore Police if any suspects have been identified or arrested in connection to the crime, but that request was directed to Fort Worth authorities. We reached out to Fort Worth authorities, and were redirected back to authorities in Oklahoma.

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