Four men from New York are facing felony charges after authorities say they ran a scheme that spanned 16 Pennsylvania counties, buying merchandise with counterfeit cash at major retailers and then returning the goods for real money. Officials identified the men as Fitzroy James, Fabian Coke, Gabriel Young, and Christopher Nicholas, and said the scheme allegedly netted the group thousands of dollars; efforts to take all four men into custody remained ongoing.
According to WTAE, the men targeted retailers including Kohl’s, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s, using fake bills to purchase items before bringing them back to the same chains for legitimate refunds. The charges, announced Thursday by Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, include felony counts of organized retail theft, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, conspiracy, and related offenses, as reported by EIN Presswire.
As first reported by WFMZ, Sunday said the men knowingly passed fake bills with the intent of returning the items for real cash, which he described as constituting organized retail theft. Officials said efforts to take the four men into custody remain ongoing.
Counties Spanning the Commonwealth
The alleged scheme wasn’t confined to one region. Per the same account from EIN Presswire, stores were hit across Allegheny, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, and York counties — a footprint stretching from the Pittsburgh area to the Lehigh Valley and into the Philadelphia suburbs.
Investigators say more than $20,000 in purchases or attempted purchases were made with fake cash statewide, while the group profited at least $12,436 from the subsequent returns, the article notes. Authorities also said the group is suspected in similar crimes in several other states, though no further detail on those cases was provided.
A Multi-Agency Investigation
The case drew on a wide net of law enforcement resources. The U.S. Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police, township police departments, and retailer loss-prevention professionals all collaborated with the Office of Attorney General on the investigation, per the same EIN Presswire account.
This isn’t the first time New York residents have been accused of running counterfeit-cash operations in Pennsylvania. According to the Daily Item, Brooklyn residents Eli Lewis and Dejuan Smartt previously faced federal charges tied to counterfeit-bill use at stores across several counties, including two businesses in Snyder County.
Part of a Broader Retail Theft Surge
The charges land amid a documented rise in retail theft across Pennsylvania. Retail theft offenses statewide increased 16% from 2023 to 2024, hitting a five-year high, according to the Pennsylvania Courts. Court data cited by New Hope Free Press shows the numbers climbing steadily, from 27,840 offenses in 2020 to 44,694 in 2024.
The state’s Organized Retail Crime Section has active investigations in 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, New Hope Free Press reports, and the unit has opened more than 170 complex investigations, made more than 100 arrests, and served more than 222 search warrants since its creation. Other recent cases tracked by the outlet include a five-county investigation involving stolen Lowe’s customer accounts and nearly $50,000 in fraudulent construction-material purchases, and a separate four-county probe in which suspects allegedly targeted Best Buy stores, causing more than $44,000 in losses through stolen electronics.
