Philly woman charged in massive shoplifting scheme

A 54-year-old Philadelphia woman has been charged with orchestrating a “box stuffing” shoplifting scheme valued at more than $100,000, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Thursday.

Myra Reddy, of North Opal Street, was charged Wednesday with corrupt organizations and related offenses for thefts from December 2016 until this year that targeted Home Depots in Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, Lancaster, and Philadelphia Counties, Shapiro said.

Reddy and her associates would take a large boxed item at a store, remove the contents, then fill the empty box with smaller, more expensive items, then pay for the original item at check out, Shapiro said. The stolen items would then be returned store credit using stolen identities. Reddy is accused of using more than 30 stolen identities and used tax-exempt numbers from charitable organizations to avoid paying taxes on the returned items.

Shapiro said Reddy’s scheme was uncovered after a routine traffic stop in Chester County, when she was found to have stolen IDs for at least three people and other evidence of the shoplifting scheme.She was being held in the Chester County prison on $500,000 bail.