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Man charged with stealing from Jackson furniture store customersWednesday, July 1, 2009
Evans pleaded guilty April 14 to felony charges of theft by deceit, the result of scamming customers at Auffenberg Chrysler in Cape Girardeau. He was placed on felony probation for the crime, then, two weeks later, applied for a job at Ashley Furniture of Jackson, where he allegedly began bilking customers in the same manner, police say. "We believe in giving people second chances, but we wouldn't have hired him if we'd known that," said Barton, co-owner of Ashley Furniture. Evans, 48, of Bertrand, Mo., was charged Tuesday with three counts of felony stealing and three counts of misdemeanor theft charges related to suspected activities at the furniture store. Evans is accused of telling customers if they paid him personally and up front for a purchase, they would receive a better price, according to a probable-cause statement by Lt. Rodney Barnes of the Jackson police. None of the promised furniture was delivered and the store never received any of the money, the statement said. An employee of the store reported helping Evans load a $270 sofa onto an unknown vehicle June 18, and inventory showed it hadn't been sold. Jackson police have identified at least five victims of the scheme; the incidents involve cash and checks in amounts ranging from $300 to $1,954. Barton said that though he has no legal obligation toward victims of the thefts, the store would be willing to make restitution for their losses. Evans turned himself in to Jackson police Tuesday and is being held on $25,000 cash-only bond. According to the statement, Evans admitted to his probation officer that he'd stolen from store clients and that he was planning to win the money back at a casino so he could reimburse them. Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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Well clearly Mr. Evans did not learn his lesson. Probation revoked, serve remaining sentence along with the sentence from these charges.
Why would he have a job after the first conviction. There are many people in this town who would love to have that opportunity and not try to scam people. Instead we still hire idiots for jobs like that.
LOL! But he's a SMART GUY, INTELLIGENT, AND A PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY!
Mega,
Great point, we should not be casting stones at this pillar of honesty in our community.
Lets not forget he has "work experience" that all the employers want their workers to have.
Let them proscute him again, revolk his probation first, then sentence him to the State Motel. We have to give credit to the owner, even though he's not responsible for this guy (so as speak) he is trying to save the respectiability of both the Store Business, and himself, for hiring this smooth talker.
Another example of our fine Justice system, and another example that employers will hire just about anyone that is willing to admit that they need a job. If they did any kind of a background on the man, then they would have known that he was a theif. That could have been found on MOCaseNet! This man was just selling you furniture...now you can only imagine who is serving your food.
arrestthem
I agree, they should have at least looked into this guys back ground. How long does it take to look someone up on Casenet or google? What if he was a delivery person and then decided to help himself to the family goods.
This is why I don't trust anyone to come into my house without myself being present and being with them all the time even if that means pulling up a chair and drinking ice tea while they work.
Wobble
Only if he was able to get to the casino would this scheme had worked. Lady luck is the only person that knows what she would have placed in this persons wallet. We will never know.
"Barton said that though he has no legal obligation toward victims of the thefts, the store would be willing to make restitution for their losses."
Awfully nice of them . . . but I have a hard time believing they would not be legally responsible for the fraudulent actions of their employee. hmmmm
What this man did was wrong, but wouldn't most people question a salesman that offered to give them a better price if they paid him personally?
Seriously, first we were asked to believe that Auffenberg didn't know that anything was going on. I doubt they knew exactly what what happening but they had to suspect something. Now, we are being asked to believe that a Jackson business owner didn't see any of the local coverage when Aaron was arrested for the Auffenberg mess; didn't hear a thing about it. Let's all go support Ashley Furniture where, owner, Al Barton has absolutely no interest in our community, doesn't read the local paper, watch the local news, or speak to any other community leaders. The Southeast Missourian and KFVS just about wore the subject out when Aaron was initially charged at Auffenberg. Aaron's got a huge gambling problem and is obviously a swindler and a criminal but Al Barton is asking me to believe he didn't know. Nobody saw Aaron working there and told him; not his employees or any of the customers. That makes Al Barton either an uninformed/uninvolved local business owner in our community or a liar. Makes you want to do business with him - NOT.
localmom1, I have to agree with you. Where are these people who will write a check to a car or furniture salesman (or even worse, give cash to him) instead of the business? If any of you are reading this, get in touch with me. I'll give you a great deal on a beautiful bridge over the Mississippi river! LOL
The people that gave this guy cash at the back dock should have their names put in the paper as they are just as crooked as he is. They should be ashamed to go in there and admit they participated in the stealing of the msde. Maybe its a sting and they will get arrested?????
where's his perp photo?
Just another example of greed!
The customers who are involved should also be
prosecuted. Having a gambling problem hardly excuses stealing and participating in his thievery
by customers who surely knew the deal was not on the up and up constitutes fraud and stealing.
Now we the honest tax payers will be footing the bill to put this perp behind bars.
Did he forget to fill out that part of the employment application about being convicted of a criminal offense? HELLO
Now, this guy is just plain dumb! He should have known that his little plan would unravel real quickly! Poor dumb idiot!
One would wonder where this individual's Probation Officer was and why the legally recognized "duty to warn" was not followed.
With policies now in place, most individuals on probation/parole never or only have to report in person to an Officer once every three months with the rest of the contacts being done by an automated phone system. "Supervision" is pretty much non existent and those many Officers who disagree are prohibited from more intense supervision. It may very well be time for considering privatization.
Well, he DID stay within his area of expertise at each job---"Customer Sales & Service"!!!
Ironic twist-of-fate, here---if convicted and incarcerated/in-rehab---WE will then be working for HIM, in a sense???
Makes me feel better already knowing how much I'm needed in "The Big Picture" after all...!!!
Stealing with plans to pay folks back later.....Sounds like a mayor or any other member of city or federal goverment.
Maybe I am wrong, but if you hire a person who is on parole aren't part of his wages paid by the state or someone ( so they can be hired and working to keep them "out of trouble ) and also people being re-habed from drugs and alchol, are their wages not partially paid by some fund?? To give them a second chance?? Thats why decent people go begging for jobs, while these idiots get jobs, what employer would not a want a minimum wage employee at half the cost??? I just spent $1,500 on a couch and loveseat from a FAMILY OWNED Cape Furniture Store. I am very pleased with them and support them and have been a happy customer for many years.
Arctic Fox,
Some funds are, or use to be available through JTPA, but it is a very cumbersome process that is rarely used. These funds also only last for a fairly short time period.
There is no fund to pay those being "rehabbed". Several years ago Vocational Rehab would provide funds for job training.
Individuals on State Probation/Parole pay a monthly "Supervision Fee" to help defray the cost of their supervision, but it is a nominal one that can be waived.
The mug shot was inadvertently left off the story. I've attached it now.
"If Jackson business owner Al Barton had known about Aaron A. Evans' previous employment, he never would have hired him, he said Tuesday."
LOL!!?? What? After all the press coverage on the other one? Didn't he have to fill out an application? Didn't they call his former employment? LOL!
Just wondering if he was in some type of program that gave him a second chance to be gainfully employed. Didn't United Way just start some type of program that is targeted toward individuals who have been in prison or on parole and are wanting to be mainstreamed back into the workforce. I know there was an article in the paper about this-can't recall all details but it seems that I recall they try to find work for them & part of salary is returned to employer? I am sure someone will correct me, if I have the details wrong. Maybe this is what was happening here. But why would you put someone who had trouble with being around money and seems to have been running a scam before in such a position?
i feel that this man done wrong, very wrong to the people he scammed and the store he worked for. but i do know that convicted felons carry that with them forever. being convicted and never being able to find a real job, its no wonder they go back to doing the crimes. the return rate is very high for convicted felons. they say they are sending you there to rehab you and when you get out everyone shuns you. you cant find a job that supports you let alone a person who has children to take care of. what are they to do the system does not always work on everyone but why punish the people that it does work on. why because of some bad apples is the whole darn tree bad???? i dont get it at all. how are others suppose to move on and put a conviction behind them when it does nothing but hinder them?????
juz me,
There is no argument that a felony record is a hindrance to obtaining a good job, but I know a lot of people who have. They were successful because they accepted that they had brought it on themselves, tried hard, did not give up and did not sit around feeling sorry for themselves.
I skim the Missourian, but missed this guy the first time. It's not that hard to believe that the business owner would not have seen it. Also, just because he filled out an application, doesn't mean he was honest about it about previous employers OR his criminal history. Maybe he didn't even fill out a full application. One of the best ways to get a job is to talk to the employer directly = if he impressed the employer, he might have gotten the job on the spot.
As for the customers that paid him...you don't know what he might have told them. He might have said there was a discount for paying cash. If he was smooth enough about it, they might not have realized what he was doing. At Ashley, they do all the paperwork and payment out on the floor. It's not that hard to see how he could have set it up without them suspecting.
Chocolatte said," At Ashley, they do all the paperwork and payment out on the floor".
Thats a bit STUPID! Perhaps they will re think this procedure. Its obvious they havn't done much thinking up until now.
I do read the paper, but there are times that I get busy and miss some things, just like the owner of Ashley. I just hate that it always seems that crooks can always get hired faster than a person who has been a hard worker all their life. The same goes for the property owners, who will only rent to those with A-1 credit. When you've lost your job and fill out applications for jobs and credit,even employment such as this,your record could be damaged due to illness,or income loss,or family problems, but people don't listen. Anyway,we must keep trusting God and everything will be alright. This happens when we try to make money no matter what the cost. I mean gambling and other unGodly activities, people lose themselves. The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Thank you for doing the right thing in reimbursing people because money is hard to come by. Let this lesson be learned if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. It just shows the working class people are trying to get a break by any means necessary. My suggestion is to TRY GOD!!!
they do not do payments on the floor at ashley's. evrytime i have been in there, the salesman takes me back to customer service and they take my payment there. the guy must have been a smooth talker to make those people fall for his scam.
Euphoric - My comment was from experience. I have purchased furniture at Ashley also. I paid by check - full price, made out to Ashley Furniture - and the entire transaction was completed on the sales floor. I don't recall another employee ever checking up on us. I was looking through a catalog on the sales floor, so that's where the transaction took place, start to finish. It was a legitimate transaction. However, I could see how a salesperson COULD say that there was a discount for cash. That is sometimes offered by legitimate businesses, so it would not necessarily seem too good to be true.
Many culprits here! The customers paying cash up front, the employee assisting in the loading of the sofa. Last but not least, the ignorance of the owner not doing a background check and watching this guy closely for a period of time as is warranted for any new employee. I do not claim to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even I would have smelled a rat here.