Utah
2 sporting goods store employees charged with stealing guns
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TAYLORSVILLE — Two employees of a sporting goods store have been arrested and accused of stealing multiple guns and gun parts.
Stephen Daniel Cord, 41, of Tremonton, and Matthew Robert Provard, 26, of South Jordan, were charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with retail theft and engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, second-degree felonies. Cord was charged with five counts of retail theft and Provard with one.
Both men were employees of Doug’s Shoot’n Sports, 4926 S. Redwood Road, at the time of the thefts.
The store’s owner discovered that the men were using the company’s point-of-sale system “to fraudulently credit themselves with in-store credit and then subsequently use the fraudulent credit to make purchases in the store, to include purchasing firearms, ammunition, parts and accessories,” according to charging documents.
In addition, the men are accused of hiding products in a back room and then putting the items in a backpack and walking out of the store without paying for them.
“These acts were caught on a surveillance camera in the ceiling of the back room,” the charges allege.
Since March 1, 2021, Cord “has made several dozen fraudulent transactions in which (he) credited his customer account for nearly $10,000. These fraudulent credits to (his) account were all used to make full or partial payments toward the purchase of firearms, ammunition, optics, silencers and other firearm accessories. During that time period, (he) purchased 27 firearms, five serialized gun parts, and two silencers using fraudulent store credit entered in the company’s point of sale system under (his) name,” according to the charges.
Provard’s actions were discovered during a records audit by the owner, the charges state.
This week, the Utah Attorney General Office’s Crimes Against State Economy Strike Force arrested both men and recovered “dozens of firearms and accessories.”
“The total value of the merchandise recovered is at least $41,000. It includes rifles, handguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, silencers, optics and other accessories. Detectives also seized a controlled substance with charges still pending,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
Other agencies that participated in the investigation include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Taylorsville police, West Jordan police, the Tremonton Fire Department and the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office.