Pop Can Scam Man Gets 3 Years Probation

LANSING – A 70-year-old Flint man was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation in connection with his returning more than 10,000 out-of-state, non-returnable cans and bottles. John Custer Woodfill scammed Michigan’s bottle return program out of $400,000, according to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.

“This man’s actions had negative consequences beyond just stealing from Michigan’s bottle return program,” Schuette said in a news release. “His actions also negatively impacted distributors, merchants and even consumers who carry much of the burden in making the program work. Hopefully today’s sentence will serve as a reminder to others who may think this is a profitable criminal endeavor. It’s not, and you will see consequences.”

Besides probation, Woodfill will get nine months in jail, which will be held in abeyance until probation is completed; 450 hours of community service; $400,000 in restitution; and he must immediately surrender $4,000 in stock with Pepsi Co. to be put toward restitution amount. Woodfill was sentenced by Judge Joseph J. Farah in the Genesee County 7th Circuit Court in Flint.

Woodfill pleaded guilty on March 20, 2017. An informant alerted the Michigan State Police to Woodfill’s operation. State police discovered that from April 2012 to April 2015, Woodfill bought uncrushed non-returnable cans in the state of Indiana as scrap, and immediately began returning them to Michigan to redeem the deposits.

A partner, now deceased, relocated to Brownstown, Indiana, where he operated a beverage can “recycling” outfit, buying locally non-refundable pop and beer cans for 60-80 cents a pound, according to Schuette. Those non-Michigan cans and bottles were trailered back to Flint by Woodfill where he developed a system of return throughout lower Michigan in order to take advantage of our state’s refund law on deposits.
For some of the out-of-state mismarked cans Woodfill created phony labels to give the appearance of a proper bar code for the automatic return machines, the attorney general said in a news release. Those labels were then affixed to the containers and returned in can machines for the 10-cent deposit.

Photo by Brad Clinesmith via Flickr Commons