HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Police issued a community alert Friday about a series of crimes at Home Depot stores around Central Virginia.
"The characteristics of these thefts are similar - the suspects ask an individual to rent a heavy piece of machinery from Home Depot, oftentimes a Boom Lift, and provide a story as to why they cannot rent it in their name(s)," a Henrico Police spokesperson shared. "Detectives in the Henrico Police Auto Theft Unit are currently investigating two cases of this nature that occurred in August 2024 at the Home Depot in the 6500 block of W. Broad Street. In both cases, the suspects never returned the machinery to the business. Detectives later recovered the equipment in a different county and/or state."
As part of the investigation, detectives are now looking for:
- Ricardo Antonio "Bella" Moreno, Jr., 24, of Hopewell
- Jatwan Lamont Redmond, 35, of Waverly
- A third unidentified individual
"Both Moreno and Redmond have active warrants for their arrest," police said. "During the course of the investigation, detectives were led to similar incidents that occurred at businesses in Ashland (town limits) and Hanover County."
Henrico Police detectives said on October 18, 2024, they received information about an additional suspect tied to this fraud/theft ring attempting to rent a piece of equipment at a Hanover County Home Depot.
"The rental never went through; however, video surveillance captured the person of interest at the rental counter," police said. "Detectives believe this individual may be linked to one of the August thefts in Henrico County."
That man was captured in a store security video wearing a black headwrap, neon green long-sleeved shirt, and ripped jeans.
Anyone with information was asked to call Det. Valentine at 804-501-5248 or Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000.
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