Target employee summoned for fraud at Ridgecrest location

Juliocesar Ponce, about 20, of Rio Rancho, was summoned Dec. 17 for fraud amounting to over $2,500 at the Target Ridgecrest Drive location.

The loss prevention worker called to report Ponce, who was an employee with the store, was stealing merchandise from the store.

The LPW told police Ponce is an electronic team member who reportedly would do price markdowns throughout his time as an employee there and was also seen skip scanning. The LPW discovered the markdowns when doing inventory of authorized markdowns, and found there were several unauthorized markdowns that Ponce was responsible for. He would pay for items after doing the unauthorized markdown. He would also do markdowns for some customers in the store at times.

LPW also said they confirmed this had happened 60 times. The first time was on Oct. 19 with incidents continuing until Dec. 16.

The total amount that Ponce had defrauded from the store was $8,882.85. The items were various electronic devices like Xboxes, PlayStations and laptops. The LPW said Ponce was immediately terminated once they found out about the fraud.

Ponce admitted to the fraud to both the LPW and police.

He said he would take 20-30% off of the full-priced items. He also said he would ask return customers he didn’t know to buy things on his behalf. He would ask them to go get the item and get in line to ring it up. Then he would give them his card to pay for the discounted item. Then the customer would give him the card and the item purchased.

At first, Ponce told officers he would only mark down the prices by 15-20%, but he later admitted to marking items down by as much as 85%.

When officers asked Ponce why he committed the fraud, he said he needed money. He also said he needed items for himself and his child.

Officers released Ponce from the scene.

Ponce, if convicted, could face three years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.