Man sentenced to prison for home improvement store theft

A man was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution after being convicted of stealing and reselling merchandise from The Home Depot, according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

Juan Ambriz-Rincon was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison and must pay $300,000 in restitution after pleading guilty in April to five felony counts, including organized retail theft, trafficking in stolen property and possession of dangerous drugs. He was sentenced June 11, according to court documents.

“This significant restitution combined with the prison sentence lets offenders know Maricopa County is not the place where you can get away with this type of crime,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a news release Thursday.

In 2023, Maricopa County had a total of 616 bookings for organized retail crime, according to the County Attorney's Office, which launched a "Safe Shopping" campaign in November to curb retail crimes. Some of these crimes have been committed by people coming to Arizona from out of state to steal goods before going back to their home states to sell them at a lower price, Mitchell said when the campaign launched.

Three women were arrested and more than $500,000 in stolen goods was recovered in April after a six-month investigation by the Phoenix Police Department and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Their trials were set for August and September.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man sentenced to prison for stealing from The Home Depot