Cabela’s ordered to comply with Delaware prosecutor subpoena in ammo storage investigation

A state judge said Cabela’s must comply with a Delaware Department of Justice subpoena in its investigation of the outdoor company’s lax storage and shoplifting prevention practices. The state agency began probing these practices last year after half a million rounds of ammunition were stolen from Cabela’s Christiana Mall store.

In its attempt to quash the subpoena, Cabela’s filed 53 pages of objections, including that the statute under which the investigation is being conducted is unconstitutional. The company also argued the other statutes the DOJ cited were not applicable to them because Cabela’s is “a national, respected, law abiding premier outdoor supply and conservation company.”

Superior Court President Judge Jan R. Jurden disagreed with Cabela’s, according to her opinion issued on Wednesday. In her 32-page opinion, Jurden states the requests made in the subpoena are relevant to the DOJ’s investigation, which among other things concerns shoplifting of ammunition, ammunition storage, loss prevention and its reporting and security footage.

“The DOJ has carried its burden to show that the subpoena is reasonable and made in response to its stated investigation, and therefore, it is enforceable,” Jurden wrote in her opinion.

Cabela’s parent company, the Great American Outdoors Group, could not be reached for comment.

Jurden’s opinion comes seven months after a federal judge said Delaware can continue investigating Cabela’s storage and shoplifting prevention practices and ordered the case be returned to Delaware state courts. Cabela’s had sought to take the case out of Delaware state courts, where stronger laws about gun dealer conduct apply.

More: Federal judge sides with Delaware DOJ, returning Cabela’s investigation to state courts

“I am grateful to the court for its ruling and pleased that once again Cabela’s legal games have been unsuccessful,” Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said. “Cabela’s has attempted to thwart this investigation at every turn. It is ridiculous that we are now well beyond a year into this investigation and yet we still have no meaningful answers from Cabelas.

“We look forward to finally being able to investigate how the theft of such a shocking number of lethal ammunition was able to take place.”

Jennings announced last summer the state DOJ was asking the Delaware Superior Court to enforce a subpoena against Cabela’s seeking information about ammunition shoplifted from its Christiana location. Investigators believe that at least 500,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen from Cabela’s in less than a year and that a substantial portion of it was sold to violent criminals and drug dealers in Delaware and Pennsylvania.  

The state DOJ’s investigation is focusing on whether Cabela’s violated any laws, including Delaware’s firearms industry public nuisance law, through its hands-off approach to the shoplifting of ammunition.

According to the DOJ, the ammunition was stored unsecured in the middle of the sales floor with no apparent effort to stop massive shoplifting. After investigators subpoenaed Cabela’s in February, the DOJ said Cabela’s moved its ammunition behind a sales counter.

How the investigation began

The state DOJ began investigating Cabela’s early last year after receiving reports of thefts of significant quantities of ammunition.

One of the people interviewed by a DOJ special investigator was 39-year-old Danielle M. Brookens, who’d been arrested in December 2022 for stealing from Cabela’s. During a March interview, Brookens told the special investigator that she shoplifted half a million rounds of ammunition from the Christiana Mall store over a year’s time.

“It was easy to steal ammunition out in the open shelves and the security was lacking” is the reason Brookens gave for shoplifting from the store, according to court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal.

More: How a pattern of shoplifting ammunition led Delaware to demand Cabela’s records

Brookens explained that on more than 20 occasions, she would place boxes of ammo in a shopping cart covered by her coat. She added others were also shoplifting ammunition from the store and that they had been doing so before she started stealing from them in December 2021.

While she told investigators she was “well known to employees and at least one supervisor” who saw her often in the store, “they did not typically confront her or take action to prevent her shoplifting.”

She said she would sell the ammo at about a third of its retail price to Delaware pawn shops. She would also sell ammo to “gang-related individuals” in Philadelphia and Dover, making more than $100,000.

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.