Over $132,000 USD Worth of Merchandise and Cash Was Taken
A sentence has finally been delivered for the GameStop armed robber, who stole over $132,000 USD worth of items by robbing four GameStop locations at gunpoint in Los Angeles and surrounding area. The U.S. Attorney Office has released a statement that Frederick Lopez Jr. will serve 10 years in prison for these four robberies.
The robberies took place between August and October of 2018. The GameStop store Lopez robbed were in Lynwood, Rowland Heights, West Covina, and Brea. Lopez entered the stores at night, sometimes with a partner, and used a handgun to threaten employees and force them to load merchandise and cash into bags for him.
The West Covina robbery in October 2018 was an incident where Lopez worked with a partner. The two ordered the GameStop employees into the back room, took their cell phones, and destroyed the store’s phone. Lopez then had one of the employees help him and his co-conspirator load stolen goods into a nearby minivan.
Lopez stole over $131,0000 USD in merchandise, including games, consoles, accessories, and more. The cash stolen from the four stores only amounted to $1,300 USD.
Police were able to find one person that had purchased one of Lopez’s stolen console thanks to cooperation from Nintendo of America. Nintendo provided a list of serial numbers for their stolen consoles.
Lopez was arrested for his role as the GameStop armed robber in March 2019. He pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence during a hearing in August 2019.
“The serious nature of [Lopez’s] offences can hardly be overstated,” said the prosecution. “Armed robberies such as these, where firearms are brandished at victims, also leave lasting substantial stress and trauma that victims remember for years, some for their entire lives.”
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office