Cops: man dressed as Ninja hid in Nordstrom’s for after-hours shoplifting spree
By briancox Special to the Tribune at 2:20 p.m.
Chances are that a Nordstrom employee charged with hiding in the Skokie department store after hours, then going on a midnight shoplifting spree, didn’t select his outfit from Nordstrom’s fall line.
Carlo Frank Settecase, 21, of the 9400 block of Leamington Avenue in Skokie, was dressed in a Ninja-like outfit as he casually strolled through the Westfield Old Orchard mall department store for several hours in the dead of night, stealing more than $30,000 worth of merchandise, police said.
Settecase worked as a switchboard operator in the store and on Friday, after a three-week investigation, he was charged with felony theft in connection with the theft, according to a police report.
Police said that when store security locked the doors and left for the night on Sept. 5, Settecase was hiding under a desk in the switchboard operators booth on the store’s second floor. He emerged from his hiding place shortly before 8 p.m. and was filmed by store surveillance cameras walking through the store wearing a black top, with a grey hood, a ski mask over his face, black gloves, black shorts and black socks without shoes, the police report said.
“It was just all black and stuff,” Skokie police officer Tammy Jacobsen said Tuesday. “Other than to mask his identity I don’t know what his reasoning was behind that.”
According to police, the surveillance tapes show Settecase walking through the men’s fragrance department, the handbag section, the fine jewelry section and other departments casually selecting items and placing them in a mail tote box.
“Settecase went to different sections of the store throughout that evening and selected more merchandise which he placed into the male tote box. Settecase returned to the mailroom after each trip, where he placed all of the merchandise he had selected. This continued until approximately 1 a.m. on Sept. 6,” the police report said.
After returning to his hiding place, police said Settecase was discovered by a housekeeper at around 2 a.m. and told her he worked at the store and was staying there because he had family problems and did not have a place to stay. He repeated the same story to another employee who discovered him laying on his back under a desk shortly before 8 a.m. Both employees reported Settecase’s odd behavior to their superiors, police said.
The next day, a Nordstrom employee noticed that two expensive handbags were missing.
Managers knew that Settecase had stayed in the store overnight and after reviewing store surveillance footage, it didn’t take them long to figure out what had allegedly happened.
“They reviewed video surveillance, which revealed the subject disguised in the ski mask selecting numerous items of Nordstrom merchandise. They believed the subject to be Settecase since there were no other know Nordstrom customers or employees in the building at the time,” the police report said.
Store security also checked eBay and learned that two jars of LeMar facial cream, identical to ones sold at Nordstrom, were being offered on an account used by Settecase on the online auction site, police said, adding store surveillance footage also showed Settecase leaving the store after his Sept. 6 shift with bags stuffed with stolen merchandise.
On Friday, confronted with all the evidence against him, police said Settecase confessed, saying he planned to sell the merchandise he had stolen from the store on eBay and use the proceeds to buy a motorcycle. Authorities said he also told them that criminal activity portrayed in the television shows “The Sopranos,” “Dexter” and “Breaking Bad” influenced him to commit the theft because the characters on those shows committed criminal acts and got away with it.
“I think that reality and the movies, people need to separate the difference,” Jacobsen said. “The criminal will be caught, and it’s only in the movies that they get away with it.”
Settecase had hidden the loot at his parents’ house, where he also lives, and when police searched the home, they recovered 77 pieces of stolen merchandise, officials said. Nearly 30 items did not have price tags, but those that did — including handbags, wallets, facial creams, watches, clothing and fragrances — had a total value of more than $29,000, police said.
Police on Tuesday were crediting store employees with helping authorities catch and charge Settecase.
“It’s because of the store employees noticing that stuff was missing, being alert, as well as the cleaning crew coming forward saying they did see someone sleeping there,” said Jacobsen. “I’m giving them credit for being observant.”
Nordstrom officials in the store’s Seattle corporate office said they were unaware of the theft or any similar cases.
“We don’t generally discuss employees matter in situations where the authorities have become involved,” said Shelby Koontz, a Nordstrom public affairs specialist.
Settecase is scheduled for a Friday hearing at the Skokie courthouse.
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Originally Posted by Mega-Foot
