Crime & Safety

Eagan Man Charged with Swindling Convenience Store

Police say David Oliver Smith swindled a Richfield SuperAmerica out of thousands of dollars while working there as a clerk.

An Eagan man has been charged with swindling a Richfield convenience store where he worked as a clerk out of thousands of dollars.

David Oliver Smith, 22, is charged with felony theft by swindle, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, compiled by Richfield Police Detective Joseph Edwards, police responded to the SuperAmerica store in the 7700 block of Nicollet Avenue South just before 4 a.m. April 2 on a report of a robbery.

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Smith told police that a man wearing a long-sleeved thermal-style shirt had come into the store and demanded money from the cash register, according to the complaint. He said the man took the money, told Smith to turn around and then left the store.

Smith appeared “very agitated and nervous” while he spoke to the police, according to Edwards’  account. He asked officers several times if he could leave the store and said he wasn’t sure if he was going to return, the complaint says.

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Smith told police that he had contacted the store manager, and she was on her way to the store. He drove away from the store in a Pontiac Grand Am, the complaint says.

When the manager arrived, police asked her to check the cash register drawer to determine how much money was missing. She told officers that the drawer shouldn’t contain more than $200, because employees are instructed not to keep more than that in the drawer and to make frequent cash drops into the safe during their shifts.

After checking the register, the manager told police that Smith had not been making cash drops into the safe, and $2,532 was missing. She said it was “extremely unusual” for employees not to make cash drops and to keep large amounts of money in the cash drawer.

Police reviewed surveillance video and saw a man enter the store earlier in Smith’s shift and approach the counter. The video showed Smith opening the cash register and handing money to the man, who then left the store, according to the complaint.

Police found Smith’s unoccupied car elsewhere in Richfield, with a long-sleeved thermal-style shirt lying on the passenger seat. Smith later returned to the store and told police that he had come back to “fill out paperwork;” at the same time, police learned that more than $3,600 worth of money orders were missing from the store.

Officers reviewed the surveillance video again and saw Smith processing the money orders, but they were unable to determine what he did with them, the complaint says. When police questioned Smith, he said he had thrown them in the trash, but wouldn’t tell them where, according to the complaint.

Smith was arrested. Later that day, police executed a search warrant on his Eagan apartment and found the missing money orders totaling $3,750.

Smith is free on a $5,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled May 17 in Hennepin County District Court.


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