Melky Kipkoge (FPD)
FLORENCE-Authorities all over the state of Alabama have been trying to find the Best Buy Bandit. It seems the one man crime spree came to an end yesterday at the Florence Best Buy.
Over the last several months Best Buy had alerted their Alabama stores of a person changing bar codes on electronics and buying the products at a substantial discount.
Florence police had a hand in bringing the suspect to justice. Authorities say in each case the suspect would remove and replace the barcoding to reflect significantly lower prices on high-value electronics.
Thursday night, Melky Kipkoge was arrested on felony shoplifting charges.
Kipkoge had a felony amount of items in his shopping cart with switched barcodes. Police tell the Insider, he was arrested at the scene without incident.
Kipkoge is being held in the Lauderdale County Detention Center.
Additional charges are pending in Jefferson County.
