2 Hellertown Men Accused of Home Depot Theft

UPDATES: Palmer Township Police said Tuesday that Sami M. Mirza turned himself in to law enforcement officials around 5:40 p.m. March 4. “He was taken into custody and transported to the Northampton County Central Booking Center for further processing,” police shared in an update on Crimewatch. “He was arraigned by Magisterial District Justice Zito and committed to the Northampton County Prison on $5,000 bail with (a) 10 percent option.” Police announced Wednesday that Richard Cody Fluck had turned himself in around 2 p.m. Tuesday. “He was taken into custody/processed and arraigned by Magisterial District Justice Hutnik,” they said. “He was arraigned and released on $10,000 unsecured bail. He will have a court date at a later time.”

Two Hellertown men are facing charges related to the alleged theft of nearly $3,000 in merchandise from a local Home Depot store.

According to the Palmer Township Police Department, arrest warrants were issued for 37-year-old Richard Cody Fluck and 35-year-old Sami M. Mirza for charges of third-degree felony retail theft, third-degree felony receiving stolen property and third-degree felony conspiracy to commit retail theft.

Police said the theft occurred at the Home Depot at 721 S. 25th Street, Easton, on the afternoon of Feb. 21.

In posts on the department’s Crimewatch site Monday, police said that after entering the store around 4 p.m., Fluck and Mirza allegedly picked up a black tote and continued “to the copper fitting aisle, where they started selecting numerous amounts of copper fittings from the shelves, placing them into the black tote box.”

Police said they then put bags of salt on the bottom shelf of a shopping cart and put a wet-dry vac bucket in a second cart.

They then allegedly pushed the carts past the store’s registers without paying for the merchandise, which police said was valued at $2,948.74.

Police said that when a cashier asked Fluck and Mirza to produce a receipt, “they both ignored the cashier’s request” and exited the store.

Outside the store, police said the men proceeded to unload the merchandise into a red Mitsubishi SUV with a Pennsylvania registration plate before leaving the scene.

According to the Crimewatch post, the Hellertown Police Department assisted Palmer Police with identifying Mirza and Fluck.

Police are asking anyone who sees them or knows their whereabouts to call Northampton County’s non-emergency dispatch line at 610-759-2200 or submit a tip via Crimewatch.

Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using information from the Palmer Township Police Department and Northampton County court records.