Frazer police arrest California man linked to gift card scams in 6 states

A Walmart at the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer proved to be the last stop in an alleged scammer’s nationwide crime spree.

Frazer police arrested Zhixiang Chen, 19, of San Gabriel, Calif., on Wednesday after their license plate readers alerted them to a silver Toyota sedan linked to 16 other thefts from Walmart stores across six states.

In a criminal complaint, police said Chen attempted to leave the store with 125 Apple gift cards worth nearly $9,000 stuffed into his pants and a denim jacket with custom- made interior pockets to hold the cards.

Chen is charged with two counts of felony retail theft and four counts of felony access device fraud. Walmart tallied Chen’s total theft at $77,900, acquired by replacing legitimate Apple gift cards with adulterated ones, according to the complaint.

While the stolen gift cards were worthless on their own, police said, Chen could access funds from the altered cards, which only he could redeem once purchased by an unsuspecting customer.

Police alerted Walmart security once they determined Chen’s whereabouts, according to the complaint. They tracked him using surveillance cameras, police said. Chen was seen swapping gift cards, leading to his arrest, the complaint states.

Chen was denied bond by District Judge Kate Lovelace. His preliminary hearing is set for June 3.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, which is leading the investigation, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sgt. Aaron Scott of the Frazer Police Department said the force is well equipped to intervene in cases like these.

“We got pretty lucky through our security system up here and our plate (reader) system as well as our good relationship with Walmart staff,” Scott said. “Us and the (Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office) invested a lot of time and money beefing up here with those cameras.”

It isn’t the first time Frazer police stopped multistate scam artists.

In May 2022, Frazer police charged Romanian nationals Constantin Colceag and Raul-Mihani Cojucaru with felony counts of access device fraud and criminal conspiracy.

The pair entered a guilty plea and were sentenced to five years of probation for trying to steal credit and debit card information by installing skimming devices.

These devices are placed over regular card readers, typically at gas pumps, ATMs and point-of-sale terminals, according to the FBI’s website. Criminals then collect the data stored in the skimmers and steal from victims’ accounts.

“We end up filing charges, getting the guys as they were driving around trying to install them. They were from Romania,” Scott said. “Once again, Frazer.”