Plea deadline set in eBay case

Meanwhile, one of the defendants in the alleged thefts was sentenced on drug related charges.

Troy Neal, 31, of Shelbyville and Kerri Neal, 36, of Murfreesboro have been accused of lifting thousands of dollars worth of weight loss and make-up items from the shelves of area Walmarts and selling them on the popular Internet auction site.

Both have been charged with theft of property over $1,000. Troy is in Bedford County Jail under $10,000 bond while Kerri was said to be in the custody of Giles County authorities and did not make an appearance in court.

Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell said that Oct. 1 will be the day in which the Neals will have to decide whether to make a plea or go to trial.

Cooperation between Shelbyville and Tullahoma investigators resulted in the arrest of the two, who were allegedly stealing large amounts of Alli weight loss products and Olay make-up from the shelves of Tullahoma's and Manchester's Walmarts, as well as Shelbyville's and others in the region.

According to Detective Sgt. Brian Crews of the Shelbyville Police Department the pair, who have allegedly confessed to the thefts, would go to the Walmart stores between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. to steal the products.

After receiving information from Tullahoma police, Crews checked the 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. Photos on Kerri's MySpace page were also compared to video surveillance of the Walmart thefts, which Crews' report said confirmed their suspicion that the Neals were involved.

Close to 60 bottles of the weight loss drug were recovered when the pair was arrested and some of the items had already been sold on eBay.

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 apiece.

Also, on Thursday, Troy Neal was sentenced by Russell to one year, five months at 30 percent for drug related charges.

Neal pleaded guilty Thursday to possession of schedule VI for resale, possession of schedule VI for delivery, possession of drug paraphernalia and public intoxication.

According to Assistant District Attorney Mike Randles, Neal was caught in an undercover operation by the 17th Judicial District Drug Task Force and found with two pounds of marijuana at his residence.