Episode 28: Master Shoplifter Steals Millions In Merchandise (2012)
2:41PM Jan 18, 2023
Speakers:
Jason Connell
Sal Rodriguez
Keywords:
toys r
toy
shoplifting
shoplifter
crime
stealing
sell
people
box
store
items
technique
big
sal
polaris
ebay
customer loyalty
michael
toy collector
thought
Welcome to Just curious media. This is that's a crime. I'm Jason Connell.
And I'm Sal Rodriguez.
All right, Sal, we are back for another crime.
Yeah. And an interesting topic. I don't think we've tackled this exact style of crime.
I think you're right. This is a new one for us. Yeah. And today we're breaking down the True Crime Story of the master shoplifter steals millions and merchandise. In 2012. Yeah,
you got to be stealth.
You have to be stealth to pull that type of load, if you will. And stealing merchandise. Yeah, I cannot wait to break this thing down. But before we do sell a word from our sponsor, is indeed, support for that to crime is brought to you by manscaped, who is the best and men's below the waist grooming and offers precision engineered tools for your family jewels? Join over 4 million men worldwide who trust manscaped and with this exclusive offer, you'll get
20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code. That's a crime@manscaped.com
Perfect. I like to get the business out of the way early sound now we delve into this episode so you're absolutely right. We've only done lighter things here and there coin thief and and lighter. We talked about this before we started recording, meaning no one was hurt. Yeah, right. There's still people impacted. I mean, this is light. However, it could have changed the cost of goods things this that and the other security gets beefed up. I don't know but it's not a good thing. And this particular thief master shoplifter, it just caught my eye because of some of the articles I read Sal called him a toy thief. And then I thought, Oh, I gotta do this Sal love this. And then I delved into it more and it was more diverse than just toys.
So and you know what, I've seen a lot of this not to the degree where I thought we would have a whole episode, but over the years being a toy collector, especially in and out arresting a lot of retailers, there is a lot of shoplifting. There is a lot of toy theft, and it's something people don't think about the you're looking at jewelry and watches and things. You gotta look out for that stuff. But toys, toys R shoplifting
Yeah, I knew you would bring some great insights some stories you go to these stores even more than I do back in the day and went to more stores. But you're a collector I mean, look around you sound Rodriguez is a toy expert and collector. I wouldn't say that thief necessarily looking for all i gotta get this this is gonna go up in five years. No, but there's some high ticket toys on the shelves. Like you just mentioned jewelry. Well, that's not accessible, right? That's behind a closed locked thing where a lot of toys are just kind of there in the aisles and some toys are pricier than others, right? So
yeah, and when it comes to Toys R Us who we talk about if we're gonna talk about toys r us there is no more real Toys R Us in the US anymore under the traditional storefront. But yeah, there has been a lot of theft and pilferage from all those retailers. And just to be clear, though, this was not why Toys R Us went out of business. This has nothing to do with why Toys R Us is no longer in operation.
So a mother and son duo also found this interesting from Tamarack, Florida part of Miami metropolitan area by the way, were arrested after stealing more than $2 million in merchandise. The sun. Truly the mastermind, Michael Polara 46 At the time, remember this is 2012 was indeed the main shoplifter and responsible for thefts at 31 Toys R Us stores in Florida alone, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office, so I'd venture to say he could give your toy collection or run for the money.
Well maybe because you know Jason when it comes to people stealing anything, usually they're looking at a quick sale. So even though you may have something of value, think about where you can sell it how you can sell it. Yeah, so these guys are out there trying to get stuff they can probably sell quick and of course you look at there's a lot of different avenues for doing so you got your eBay you can try to send an email trying to sell on craigslist Facebook marketplace. There's a lot of ways to try to get rid of what you stole. But you got to try to find a way to get rid of it. That's for certain
Yeah, I stand corrected. Your toy collection is superior to
this is merely This is a fraction
his his churn and burn and you have stuff going back to the I'm sure even beyond the 80s I'm sure you got 70 So you probably got some real gems in there. So keep it up. I was just making a bad joke. So now his mother Michael's mother Margaret Polara 70 At the time, rest in peace. She has since passed on was mainly a lookout on many occasions and there was another accomplice Travis Simpson 43 At the time, who did the same because this was a skilled operation sell. And as for Michael Polara. He used a box stuffing method and what she would take a retail item empty its box X and put in a more expensive item or items inside, he would then wander to the cash register and be charged for the less expensive item now, so I watched the footage of player inaction I'm sure you did as well. I sent you the video link. And he was methodical, quick, decisive, uses lookouts and knew how to avoid drawing suspicion to himself. So had you heard of this box stuffing technique? I wouldn't say it's revolutionary. But it's an interesting system. And obviously very effective. Yeah,
back when I was a teenager, allegedly. Oh, yeah, we didn't use the box technique. But we would use the hollowed out book technique for grabbing cassette class CDs. Yeah. So whether it be a box or whether it be a hollowed out book, you need something to put the items in. Yes. So this was their method. But I myself allegedly have never participated in the box technique, which I think is possibly a newer method.
Yeah, must be another one of Polaris tricks on top of the box technique, which is fantastic if you're into that type of thing. But he would purchase a cold water bottle, you know, those like refreshments right by the register, you're like, gotta have it, get a cold water bottle. So the cashier wouldn't want to also touch the box, because, and I saw this in the video, there's an interview with him. And he's a character, I gotta say, there's that he's theatrical, they would touch the water bottle and get a wet hand and he would try to help them and hold the box. So they would just scan it. You know, when you go to like Sam's or Costco, there's so many big items, they just kind of come over to the cart, or do some scanning.
Nobody may even touch the box. Sometimes at Walmart, you can have a large item in your cart, they come over they scan it and nobody has tapped so
and the reason being sell any thoughts here?
Well, you don't want them to realize that the box is suddenly four times heavier.
Why is it 75 pounds? What happened here? And that's exactly why so he has it down. He's got his techniques. And in the video, he's not afraid to share those techniques. I thought that was really interesting. And player's routine, essentially, was to take a big box items such as because he needs a big box to start with. Right? He can't just grab any box. He's got to go to something and it points a few out here and the articles that Chuck Dix stunt set or sorry, what? Yeah, hello, this is what it said Chuck Dix stunt set, or the big adventure raceway. Now I did look both of these up the ladder I saw on Amazon. So it's like race cars and Hot Wheels, whatever it is all these tracks. And so yeah, it's a bigger item, right and probably very light but easy enough to pull out and dump the contents. I'm assuming you heard of the ladder, you and I blanked on the first one. But he would then hide these products somewhere inside the store, often with the help of his mother and or Simpson and then refill the box with the high ticket highly desirable goods such as Lego merchandise, specifically, points out Harry Potter LEGO sets, which are about 150 bucks, the Delete pads are no tabs and, and many more. So the first of all, you can't go wrong with Legos. They seem to last the test of time. But have you heard of these other things? Elite pads and intertops? I have it but I'm not in the toy or game or kid business? And he does come to mind.
No, no, because you know why I specifically usually stay in the lane of diecast cars, action figures figurines, and the occasional doll. But yeah, so what it's stuff like these race sets and stuff like that. No, I'm probably not familiar with them. But you know what? Legos later so popular. I mean, all of us. Anybody within earshot probably grew up with Legos. Legos are more popular than ever.
It's true. And so he's going for things that are popular, that have high value, and then dumping these things in these bigger boxes. So on May 9 2012, Toys R Us began investigating Clara and discovered that he had actually been in 139 of the chains stores across 27 states, from Arizona to Maine, and had spent his own money $6,738
It's a lot of water bottles. Yes, it is.
And so with Polaris box stuffing method that nearly $7,000 yielded quite a fortune because yeah, besides the water bottles, he's paying for that one of these raceways, right, that are the one of the chucks, sticks, sunsets, what what could they be 50 bucks, 40 bucks. And inside there's
it's the old diversion tactic effectively. When people think of shoplifters, like I used to work at a clothing store right outside of high school, and we were taught the guy comes in, he's wearing a trench coat he looks all obvious, you know, right. And then he just walks out but no, you know, if you're a cashier you're you're not think Get the person purchasing something. Yeah is also stay.
Yeah, I'm here to get this and yeah. Oh yeah, I'll take one of these waters here. Yeah, he's coming to and checking out. I wonder if he ever did self checkout? I don't know if Toys R Us had self checkout at the time because that became something later. Yes, yes. And I'm sure cameras got better but I mean, as good as he was, he still seen in the video chucking out getting a box up to no good. So whatever security people or whoever's looking at surveillance isn't on it. I will say that.
Well, two things. One thing is funny that he doesn't try to disguise himself in any way. He's just walking around as himself. The other thing is no, there was no real security at Toys R Us you had the employees on staff. And that was about it. I don't think there was anybody in the back looking at cameras. There was no I don't think undercover officers. There was no uniformed officers. I would say that if you were going to shoplift, that American Toys R Us stores was probably a good spot.
Obviously player and knew that hitting 100 And what 39 of them 27 states, so player may have been the Shakespeare of shoplifting sell a maestro, and the criminal art. I pulled this from one of the many articles not giving him his monikers. But I thought it was funny. But even the greats have their weaknesses. Polaris downfall was that he repeatedly used several of the same customer loyalty cards, and his shoplifting forays, which eventually led to Toys R Us building a case against Polara. And so you say this all the time on this show? What happens to people at this point in time when they're having some success? what begins to happen,
where they get too greedy, or they get sloppy,
both but I'd say greed for sure. What are you thinking, bringing loyalty cards into this? Sell? If I'm a player, and I don't, you know, I'm not advocating shoplifting, but use cash and no credit cards. And by no means do you use a customer loyalty card. Like that's just taken a shot across the bow, like they don't know anything like eventually you hit 139 of these stores across 27 states and they're gonna start to fact check. And this customer has visited so many, like, do things start to add up. And so they basically went out and got Sergeant rich Rosman where he was the representative, one of the investigators of the Broward County Sheriff's Office, and they started to probably have one of those walls. You know, they have these sightings. Blair was like, okay, yeah, he's been at this one in Florida, because he hit Florida a lot. But then he branched out.
Yeah, and the Toys R Us loyalty program went by your phone number. So he's basically giving his phone number or at least a phone number. Yes. wherever he went. So yeah, they probably had in their investigation office. They had a whole map. They had the pins. Yeah, in each of the areas. Yeah. So believe me, I was all over a few states go into the Toys R Us. But I was not shoplifting. I was just there as a toy collector. But yeah, this guy's giving his phone number out there matching it with the customer loyalty cards. And by the way, the way that worked is if you build up enough purchases, you get like a $10 off coupon and all that sort of thing. So that's what that was. So this guy was probably getting the coupons. But meanwhile, he's doing the shoplifting as well.
You're already making hundreds of 1000s of dollars, what's $10 on a transaction, or you know, it's like, that's where, and again, I'm glad he did it. I'm glad they caught him. But this is the either the ego or he just didn't know any better sell or he just assumed everyone's asleep at the wheel, whatever I might as well cash in, and he probably love to tell that story. And we have some statements from him that'll you'll kind of understand the character if our listeners or viewers have not seen him in action. Now in addition to Toys R Us it was learned that Polara had been stealing for over 10 years from various other retailers. So this became a non toy crime Sal, because he was in many CVS, JC Penney, Kmart, Macy's, Sears, Target, Walmart, he was stealing from all of them. So this probably became an obsession is like a gambler was just like, I gotta go, I gotta go. I gotta try this store. This is unbelievable.
Well, effectively, this was his job, because right, we're not learning. He had some sort of career. Yeah, this was his career.
You're right. Yes, this was a full time job. Well, Polaris admitted to selling the stolen items because they started to put things together sounds we've talked about and one long until they caught up with old Polara. He was selling things on eBay, as well as fencing. And I'm assuming you're familiar with that term, right?
OSHA fencing, you people steal the goods, they sell the goods. You know, the old fashioned one we've probably all seen is you're at the gas station and guys drive up. Hey, we got these couple speakers. yeah oh yeah. Are we old speaker scam at the gas station usually hidden up single guys usually because yeah, we want to have good speakers right? You got to be where catalytic converters is a big thing people stealing catalytic converters people stealing batteries out of cars. The whole thing these investigators have to look for is how they're getting rid of these items. How are they fencing? These items? What is the distribution channel for stolen goods?
Have you bought any speakers when guys come out of that gas station? Are they selling the real speakers? Hot speakers are not just selling a box of rocks right?
Well, no, that was part of the scam part of the scam. Is there one right? You would buy the speakers Oh, I'll give you 200 bucks for these speakers that you had an extra box of and then they were either like dummy speakers or empty or broken or something like that. So the whole thing was just they can
be hot speakers you just don't know don't risk it. Well, yeah, that's
a whole nother story yet. But in any event, if anybody's approaching you at gas stations, beware.
So players records from eBay and Pay Pal show that he's sold the items under a few accounts and they were named line mart or and or BioMart. USA pretty generic sale. And these two accounts alone took in a total of just under $1,000,000.09 $109,000. Wow, he was a power seller on eBay. Exactly. And Sal did you purchase any of those toys behind you from line mart or bipartisan slash USA? Come on. This is that's a crime. We can
be crazy.
We're gonna look this guy was selling some really hot items.
Well, I do have some figures back there living dead dolls. I do have some we've got an exorcist stair walk Regan back here. That could have been from him. It's entirely possible. I have bought a lot of items from eBay.
Buyer beware. So. Yes. So then Sergeant rich Rosman said the following about Michael Polara, and a press conference. And so we'll just go back and forth on these because some of these are pretty funny.
Sergeant rich Rossman says, this is without a doubt, the number one prolific booster that we've ever come across. He also said
he traveled the entire country doing this. He was a one man Wrecking Crew. He called it the art
of stealing. He also says he made it a goal of his to steal from all 50 states within one year, which he was very proud of.
Wow, he hit all 50 I mean, that's impressive sow.
Yeah, yeah. So it seems like this guy has some sort of agenda wasn't just that he was trying to steal and sell. He kind of had these goals in mind.
Yeah, he's like, ah, you know, and I could probably hit all 50. And, and that's why I mean, it became more of an obsession than just like, I'm making good money. And now he just kept pushing the boundary. And he's got to get them customer loyalty cards. crankin right. You gotta get those points.
And he's got to get good eBay reviews to keep sellers power
sellers. You're absolutely right. So Ross been also said he told detectives that he made so much money from CVS stores alone that it paid for a nice vacation to Hawaii. Wow. So I hope he enjoyed the road to Hana in Maui. Which is amazing. By the way,
I've done it. I've done it. So how great is that? Right? All the waterfalls? Yeah, it's a Maui you got to visit Maui.
Amazing, this guy. And he's living the lifestyle. He's a shoplifter with big dreams, big lofty travel dreams. And so Michael player was charged with one count of dealing in stolen property, five counts of Grand Theft, four counts of criminal conspiracy and two counts of felony petty theft. So in the end, he served just about two years in jail.
This is one of the things and we've talked about this before on that subprime when you look at the penalty, right for what you had to do. So the question becomes, okay, well, would I spend two years in prison for half million dollars?
Yeah, he made maybe 2 million plus we don't even know. Right.
Okay. So by the time we split it with his mother and his accomplice, yeah, Travis, in other words, for some people, it may be worth it to go to prison for a little while you get out you still have money.
When you see the video of Did you watch the interview of him? He's completely at peace with it. He he's a man about town. He's got money. They didn't empty his bank account? I wouldn't think so. And he could just recreate it. He is an interesting guy. So yes, he took that the reward was worth the risk and the two years in jail. As for Margaret, his mother, Margaret Polara, she faced and there's not a lot of information on her because I know she passed away but she faced one count of organize scheme to defraud two counts of Grand Theft, two counts of criminal conspiracy, and one count of theft. I don't know how much jail time or if she was sentenced. That's all the information I could gather. And as for Travis Simpson, he was charged with 11 counts of Grand Theft, petty theft, conspiracy and fraud. And again, I don't have any information on jail time. It was all really up out the master shoplifter Michael Valera.
No, but you know what, Jason, this is what we know in recent times. But when you're looking at a Mother Son crime team, yeah, you can only imagine that this has been going on Michael's entire Oh life. Yeah, who taught him you don't just all of a sudden in your 40s go, Hey, Mom, let's go shoplifting. This has been going on for decades.
He's probably like, Mommy know what you used to do when we were younger? I got to a next level plan. And she's like, yes, not bad. That box empty and tactics. Not bad. Let's get Travis let's go give us a whirl. Yeah, boy, your mom's in on it. And you watch that footage. And you see him kind of interacting with them like their other customers, because they're not in there together. By the way, I'm backing up to the video again. And they're almost like, it's a distraction. If you're going down an aisle, and there's someone else there and they're having a quick exchange, and he's doing something. So the people are not looking at that anymore. It's smart. And they're looking out for each other and communicating, but not their version,
the diversion technique and look
over here. Well, this old lady just fell down. Who knows? Right? I mean, every stuffs going down. So I'm glad they caught him. He pushed his luck there, the customer loyalty cards, had he not done that. Who knows when they would have got him? I mean, look at all the establishments he hid and how many states and how widespread this was. Now Polara has the following statement sell. And we'll go back and forth on these as well, because now you get to see the character a little bit.
Yeah, straight out of the interview. He definitely is a character. You could tell he likes the attention right now. Oh, yeah, very theatrical in his mannerisms, but he says, in regards to shoplifting, there's only five methods. He said. It's either on you, either if you're a female, it's in the purse. Either it's in a bag or it's in a shopping cart, or it's in a box. That's it. That's Polaris
five shot. He's just so quirky. Well, you
know, because because that video where they were talking about the video clip, show some other shoplifters early in the video, and we see a guy shoplifting, a chainsaw in a shoved chainsaw down. It's
believable.
That's crazy.
I don't know if he made it out of the aisle, because that is a terrible technique, but
I hope so I hope it was not gassed up. No.
And he also says Polara when investigators asked him how much he stole from Toys R Us during his crime spree. He said, probably a whole store full. And he's probably right, Sal.
Yeah. Because you know why also when it comes to fencing, see right now there's a whole thing going on as we speak. They are starting to clamp down on taxes. Venmo, PayPal, eBay and all that Facebook marketplace probably also we'll see. But meanwhile, fencing stolen goods is still happening. Nobody cares. Yeah, whatever. Bootleg purses, nobody cares. But I will get those taxes.
And go ahead and take the last statement we have from the master mind himself, Clara.
He says my nickname in jail. Everyone has a jail name. I mean, they don't call you Michael. So you could assume what my nickname was? I was Toys R Us. Wow. Wow, this guy's like, I have such mixed feelings about this. On one hand. I love it. I'm a toy collector, on the other hand is like, Dude, what are you doing?
What are you doing? You're killing us? You're driving toys r us out of business?
Yeah. And Toys R Us though. Still in other parts of the world. I understand. It's still big in Canada. I have visited Toys R Us and other countries. I visited Toys R Us in Abu Dhabi.
Wow. What's it saying? Is it say Toys R Us? Are they they're a translation.
Okay, so Abu Dhabi is part of the United Arab Emirates along with Dubai. And it was the most beautiful Toys R Us I've ever visited with the most meager selection because you know what Abu Dhabi is called sort of a conservative state in the Arab world. So a lot of the toys that we take for granted here maybe a gorgeous Barbie doll. They don't want it not so much. They do not want it. So I was in the store. It was gorgeous. And there was hardly anything in it.
Wow, that's amazing. So that is a store that Claire would probably just skip. Yeah. Oh,
believe me. This guy would not want to be caught shoplifting at a Toys R Us in an Arab country. Now he would be without hands. He would be handleless
Yeah. So that's it. So that covers the master shoplifters steals millions of merchandise and 2012 I just thought of you. I was kind of hoping he was an exclusive Toy Thief. But as the story unfolded, I thought, oh, there's enough here to talk about. It's interesting. It's lighter. You know, we'd like to cover lots of things here sell and that's a crime.
Yep. We cover everything from a misdemeanor to a murder. And yeah, this is a very special one. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Jason. For the most part as a toy collector out there the most you have to concern yourself with is the switcheroo. What happens As people buy a toy and switch it with a less expensive model, and then return it and get their money back. So that happens a lot. That's usually what your average Toy Collector has to look out for.
And so if you go buy a toy sale on the up and up and you go not to a big box store, but you go to a smaller store, because I used to collect cards, baseball cards, and you go to a small shop back in the day, but do you go to a small place? And could you be buying maybe a fenced item from them? Because you've said some toys are so hard to get that can't keep this American Werewolf in London, on the shelf, this new creature this toy, but you wouldn't even know if you're buying stolen goods in a little mom and pop store, I guess, if you will,
you would not officially know but I think most people aren't thinking about that all they're worried about is price gouging and scalping, Scalping is a big thing. So what happens is people will go to the big box stores, they'll buy them all up, and then they'll sell them for you know, 20 bucks, 25 bucks increase on eBay. So Scalping is a big thing. And Switcheroos a big thing. As far as guys like Michael and his team. That's next level liquid. Stuff like this everyday level.
Yeah. Let's hope they're out of business sound. There's not another there's not a new Polara out there working right now. And things are different, too. I mean, I think I would hope this is 2012 more 10 years removed from that. And I'm assuming that camera technology, everything is probably more dialed in. And even if someone got this going this box technique, I'm assuming they would get caught much faster now.
No, no, you're right. And one thing you want to remember also is do not give them your loyalty card.
Gosh, there's nothing you've learned this episode. That's the one thing that's the takeaway. Oh my goodness. So that covers it, Sal. That was great. Anything else to add?
Hey, have fun collecting toys out there the legitimate way,
be legitimate. So unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped
and get 20% off and free shipping with the code. That's a crime@manscaped.com
Thank you so much for listening. And please be sure to subscribe to the that's a crime podcast as well as the that's a crime YouTube Live Channel. You can also really help us by giving the show a five star rating on Apple podcast.
And for all your listeners that enjoy sharing your thoughts. You can leave us a review on Apple podcasts, send us a direct message or post a comment on any that's a crime social media platform.
We also highly recommend checking out our other podcast and visiting just curious media.com