On December 23, 2024, Deputy Cassidy of the Wright County Sheriff's Office responded to a theft report from the Guess Factory Store, hereinafter store, at the Albertville Outlet Mall in the City of Albertville, Wright County, Minnesota. The Regional Loss Prevention Manager, Mandy DaSilva, reported the following: Esthefany Arleth Guerra Flores [DOB REDACTED], hereinafter Defendant, was hired as the store manager on August 29, 2024; Loss Prevention received alerts regarding voided transactions and numerous returns to the same account number; Loss Prevention reviewed transactions and determined that Defendant was voiding purchases and appeared to create fraudulent returns with the return refund going to a credit or debit account number for Defendant.
On December 30, 2024, DaSilva provided additional information to Deputy Cassidy, via email, as follows: Defendant engaged in 200 canceled transactions, from September 12, 2024, to December 16, 2024, leading to a total loss of $29,959.00; Camera footage for 59 of Defendant's fraudulent transactions was obtained and reviewed; The loss from the 59 fraudulent transactions on camera totaled $10,060.32; Some of the fraudulent transactions involved products being provided to other individuals. On January 6, 2025, Deputy Cassidy spoke with Defendant.
Defendant claimed the transactions were legitimate, often involving a price check or return of products she legitimately purchased. On January 9, 2025, Deputy Miller of the Wright County Sheriff's Office responded to the store to speak with Defendant, who was in the management office. Following a Miranda warning, Defendant stated the following: Defendant committed nearly $30,628.51 worth of fraudulent transactions; Defendant was going through a divorce and having financial difficulties; The first time Defendant committed a fraudulent transaction, an acquaintance provided merchandise to Defendant; Defendant canceled the transaction but the acquaintance kept the merchandise and paid Defendant a small amount of money; Defendant did this for many more people who learned of this act; Defendant claimed many of the people said they would turn her in if she didn't provide them with the merchandise for a small sum paid to Defendant.
As previously noted, investigation by Guess revealed that Defendant obtained refund amounts to one of her financial accounts from the fraudulent returns.
