Stoughton IKEA Workers Accused Of Stealing $65,000 In Return Policy Scam

STOUGHTON (CBS) -- Three IKEA workers are facing charges after the Stoughton store's security team discovered they were behind a combined loss of over $65,000 since October, police said.

Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Meija, 20-year-old Noah Duarte, and 20-year-old Eboni Gillard, all of Brockton, are accused of "taking advantage of a return policy on a recalled bureau that allowed for a full cash refund with only a piece of the recalled product being brought back into the store."

According to police, "the trio would allow their conspirators to come into the store with the pieces of the recalled items for large sums of cash."

Meija, a manager at the store, approved all but two of these transactions, police said. He also often scheduled Duarte and Gillard to work at the same time as him.

On Dec. 2, IKEA told police they had reason to believe Gillard was at least partially to blame for the "suspicious amounts of money missing" and fired her. She was arrested on an unrelated warrant. Police reviewed surveillance footage, and eventually, Meija and Duarte were also arrested.

All three were arraigned on charges of larceny over $1,200 and conspiracy. They were released on personal recognizance and scheduled to appear in court on a later date.