Woman Charged with Swindling Sam's Club

A Wisconsin woman has been charged with swindling the Eagan Sam’s Club store out of almost $3,000 in a scheme involving the purchase of laptop computers.

Debbie M. Belland, 54, of Grantsburg, Wisc., faces one felony count of theft by swindle in the case.

According to the complaint, Belland and another person bought $2,997 worth of laptops from the Eagan store last June 25. About 40 minutes later, Belland – who bought the computers under a business name – returned the computers to the store for refunds.

The complaint says that the laptops initially appeared to be intact and “have no issues.” However, after Sam’s Club employees were alerted to similar thefts in other stores, they examined the computers more closely and found that in each computer, two 3-gigabyte memory sticks had been removed and replaced with one 2-gigabyte memory stick.

Swapping out the memory sticks “voids the warranty as well as making it nearly impossible to resell the computers,” according to the complaint. That means that the loss to the Eagan Sam’s Club location amounted to $2,997.

The complaint says authorities believe that Belland purchased and returned 31 computers in the same fashion “in various other jurisdictions” beginning June 4, 2010.

Belland is scheduled to make a first appearance in the case on May 16.