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TAYLORSVILLE — Three Romanian nationals wanted in another state have been arrested in Utah and accused of stealing from local stores.
On Tuesday, police received information from loss prevention agents at Target and Walmart that "a group of individuals were going to multiple retail locations committing theft and fraud throughout Utah while driving a rental vehicle," a police booking affidavit states.
The group would attempt to make large purchases using cash. But after the cashier counted the money provided by the suspected thieves to pay for their items, "they would confuse the cashier and ask for the money back to verify the amount. When the individuals verified the money, they would give the cash back to the cashier while taking a cut by sleight-of-hand removing some of the money from the stack causing it to be short money without the cashier double checking the amount again," according to the affidavit.
The men were spotted at City Creek Center, 65 S. Regent Street, in Salt Lake City on Tuesday and were taken into custody. Multiple items believed to be stolen were found in their vehicle, police said.
Radu Sava, 28, Norvergianca Sava, 21, and Octavian Kvec, 18, were arrested for investigation of engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, criminal conspiracy and theft by deception. Radu Sava was also arrested on suspicion of three counts of forgery.
"The individuals involved are Romanians residing in New York and have no ties to Utah," according to the arrest report. All three have also "been flagged by the FBI as an organized crime transnational suspect on the national database," as well as having active warrants for their arrests in South Carolina.
All three men are in the United States illegally, the affidavit says.
