MIDLAND, Texas — A Lubbock man has been arrested by the Midland Police Department for his part in a series of thefts that took place at the Midland Park Mall earlier this month.
21-year-old Tyson A. Maldonado has been charged with one count of Robbery as well as five counts of Theft.
Detective Campbell was assigned to the case and discovered that there were four suspects involved in the thefts. On top of Maldonado, three other people were identified as suspects. The group was located by security cameras, which caught them in the act.
Maldonado and the group stole from multiple stores on March 4, according to the police affidavit. These stores included Victoria's Secret, Dick's Sporting Goods, Footlocker and Champs Sports.
At Champs Sports, multiple items were stolen by the group, which totaled $550. At Footlocker, another $2,520 worth of items were taken on the same day.
Then, the suspects entered Dick's Sporting Goods and took close to $4,700 worth of merchandise from the sports store. Finally, the group went to Victoria's Secret and took merchandise that totaled more than $1,000.
Soon after the thefts occurred, Maldonado used the Facebook name "Martinez Tutz" to sell his stolen merchandise. The merchandise on this page matched the merchandise stolen at these various stores.
According to the affidavit, the group of suspects drove down on March 4 from Lubbock to Midland with the intent to steal from these stores. They went into the first store at 5:25 p.m. and left the last store at 6:00 p.m.
Overall, the suspects took around $8,800 worth of merchandise from the stores that day.
This was not the first time Maldonado has stolen from the Midland Park Mall. Back in June of 2021, Maldonado and another one of the suspects went to the Ulta Beauty store and stole around $265 worth of make-up.
The original case conducted by Detective Campbell was made inactive back in July of 2021 until new evidence was found. On March 4, 2022, when the other thefts occurred, the methods of theft matched the suspects' tactics used during the Ulta incident.
Maldonado was arrested on March 23, 2022. He is currently being held in Midland County on six bonds that add up to $75,000.