This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Crime & Safety

Arrest Follows Steep Retail Discounts

Bloomingdale's salesman found cutting prices 50 percent or more in alleged scheme.

Police were called to the Bloomingdale’s department store in the 4900 block of Old Orchard Center in response to a retail theft Aug. 3, as an employee was accused of giving out suspiciously steep discounts.

According to the police report. Nelson I. Turcios, 27, of Chicago, an employee of Bloomingdale’s, was charged with one count of misdemeanor retail theft. He is accused of selling five items when the customer walked out with nine items July 16.

Bloomingdale’s security told police that Turcios would occasionally not ring up the correct total for merchandise. They noted that he charged a customer $387 for a suit valued at $895 on July 13 and $375.60 for a men's Burberry suit valued at $1,095 on July 15.

Find out what's happening in Skokiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Earlier:

In the July 16 incident,  a customer was charged $143.86 for nine items valued at $561.86, according to the report.

Find out what's happening in Skokiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On July 28, the customer who purchased the suit for $895 returned it, and Turcios credited the customer’s Bloomingdale’s credit card for the full $895 rather than the $387 purchase price. Turcios also charged the customer $109.98 for items valued at $245.

Turcios told police he had been employed at Bloomingdale’s since last September. He said he had to make a minimum of $10,000 in weekly sales. Customers would come in and he would discount their purchases so they would come back to him so he could make his sales quota.

When he started working at the Bloomingdale’s store, his managers were very lenient about discounts and allowed him to ring them up for shoppers without their permission, Turcios told police.

Turcios said the returned suit was credited at $895 because the customer had purchased the identical clothing at another Bloomingdale’s in Chicago. When he scanned that suit, it showed a price of $895. Turcios said he then gave the customer a 50 percent discount on the items he purchased that day.

“Everybody discounts their clients significantly every day,” Turcios told police. “But I am being made an example.”

Turcios was scheduled to appear at the Skokie courthouse Aug. 29. 

Like us on Facebook

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Skokie