Man charged after scamming Edina Apple store out of $1,900

A New York man believed to have ties to a Romanian organized crime group has been charged with one count of theft by swindle after stealing about $1,900 from an Apple store in Edina.

Suraj Tomita, 25, is accused of shortchanging a cashier Aug. 1 as he attempted to buy electronics at the store in Southdale Center, according to charges filed Thursday in Hennepin County District Court.

Tomita was the second person in the Twin Cities charged with the "sleight of hand" scheme in recent weeks. St. Louis Park police arrested Baronita Rostas, 23, in late July, and Rostas now also faces charges in Hennepin County.

Authorities said both Tomita and Rostas had ties to a Romanian organized crime group that has committed distraction thefts at retail stores across the United States, including several retail outlets in the Twin Cities.

In committing the crimes, suspects present a cashier a large sum of cash to pay for merchandise. They then distract the cashier and remove a portion of the money from the stack, pocketing the bills and giving the cashier the remainder. The suspects then take the merchandise and a receipt and return the goods to another store to redeem their full value, criminal complaints say.

In Tomita's case, he pulled out $3,600 to pay for electronics that included a MacBook laptop and AirPods. Tomita, the cashier and a store manager counted the money. Tomita then made eye contact with the cashier before the employee could put the money in the drawer and covertly removed $1,900 from the stack, the criminal complaint said.

An off-duty Edina police detective witnessed what he believed to be a "quick-change" theft, the charges said.

Tomita was arrested, and police found more than $3,000 in $100 bills in his possession, the charges said.

Rostas is accused of using the same technique to defraud metro area retailers of more than $6,280 between March 14 and July 27.

"This sort of high-volume, organized fraud has a significant impact on businesses and their employees, and ultimately impacts all of us through higher prices," Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said after Rostas was charged. "We take this crime seriously and will aggressively prosecute those responsible."