Suspects allegedly sold stolen items on eBay

Shelbyville police arrested a local couple Tuesday that authorities said were stealing thousands of dollars worth of weight loss and make-up items from the shelves of area Wal-Marts and selling them on the Internet.

Cooperation between Shelbyville and Tullahoma investigators resulted in the arrest of 31-year-old Troy Neal of Shelbyville and Kerri Neal, 36, of Murfreesboro.

Both have been charged with theft of property over $1,000. Troy remained in the Bedford County jail under $10,000 bond while Kerri was freed under $2,500 bond.

However, Kerri was immediately taken to Coffee County where she posted bond there and she also faces charges in other counties as well. Troy also has charges pending in other jurisdictions.

According to Shelbyville Detective Brian Crews, he was contacted by Detective Ty Brazier of the Tullahoma Police Department, who was investigating the theft of large amounts of Alli weight loss products and Olay make-up from the shelves of Tullahoma's and Manchester's Wal-Mart.

During Brazier's investigation, the Tullahoma detective learned that other area Wal-Marts had also been alleged victims of the Neals, whom he suspected in the thefts.

Crews said the couple's typical method was to go to the Wal-Mart stores between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. to steal the products. First, they allegedly stole the Alli weight-loss products, ripping the bottles out of the packaging, which was left in the aisle of the store.

After receiving Brazier's information, Crews checked the Internet marketplace eBay and narrowed his search to within 10 miles of Shelbyville to see if the couple were selling the stolen products online.

Crews found an eBay user named "sweet-sassy-2" and Detective Charles Merlo also checked MySpace and found that Kerri Neal was using the same user name.

"When I looked at all the other items they were selling, they were all the same items that were being reported stolen from Wal-Marts," from all over middle Tennessee, Crews said.

Photos on Kerri's MySpace page were also compared to video surveillance of the Wal-Mart thefts, which Crews' report said confirmed their suspicion that the Neals were involved.

Warrants against the Neals were issued for theft over $1,000 just for the items taken from the Shelbyville Wal-Mart and Crews said he has been in contact with police in other jurisdictions, where warrants will be obtained as well.

Crews said the Neals had just returned from a vacation in Florida Monday night, and during that time, allegedly hit five more Wal-Marts in the middle Tennessee area, taking the Alli products and Olay Pro-X.

"These are very hot items on eBay," Crews explained. Close to 60 bottles of the weight loss drug were recovered and some of the items had already been sold on eBay.

About $1,500 worth of items were taken from Shelbyville's Wal-Mart, and the theft from the Manchester store Monday night totalled $850, Winchester lost $1,600 and a total of $4,700 worth of items were taken out of Coffee County.

Investigators are also waiting on numbers from Warren and Rutherford County as well.

"People have paid for them and are waiting for these items to be shipped, unfortunately, they will not be sent to them," but instead will be logged into evidence, Crews said.

Kerri Neal admitted pocketing about $7,000 to $8,000 by selling the stolen items on the Internet since April 10, according to Crews. The eBay site showed that "sweet-sassy-2" had 561 transactions and since April 10, all of the items sold were either the Olay or Alli products.

Troy Neal confessed as well, Crews said, with Troy allegedly telling the detective the scheme was his idea, because he knew that Alli was a popular product.

The Alli products sold from $36.99 to $61 on the "sweet-sassy-2" eBay store while the price for the Olay items varied, with some bringing in as much as $20 a piece.

Both Neals are scheduled to appear in Bedford County General Sessions court on July 7.