Chubbuck man charged after allegedly stealing nearly $3k in snow gloves
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POCATELLO — A man police say stole thousands of dollars in sporting goods has been charged.
Domenic Joseph Raye, 33, of Chubbuck, has been charged with felony grand theft. Court records show that the Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office has filed a notice of intent to seek the addition of a persistent violator enhancement, which would add to a potential sentence.
Pocatello Police received a call on Oct. 19 reporting a theft at a sporting goods store, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The business owner told police that a man had taken “numerous” pairs of gloves and three backpacks from the business’s loading dock in the middle of the night.
When officers arrived, they were provided surveillance footage of the theft.
The footage, according to the affidavit, included five separate videos — timestamped between 12:11 a.m. and 5:32 a.m.
Videos show a man, later identified as Raye, walk to a pallet that was left out near the loading dock overnight, the affidavit says. Raye is seen grabbing a backpack from a box on the pallet and filling it with gloves — also from a box on the pallet — then leaving.
Raye then returns around 3:45 a.m. and fills a second backpack with gloves and leaves, according to court documents. Around 5:30 a.m., he returns and allegedly fills another backpack with gloves and again leaves.
The business owner showed officers other pairs of the gloves stolen — 13 pairs of Switchback Kinport gloves, valued at $129.99 a pair, three pairs of Switchback Stomp Jr. gloves, valued at $39.99 a pair, and three pairs of Switchback McKinley GloveX gloves, valued at $129.99 a pair.
While investigating the theft, officers found a buy/sell/trade ad on Facebook for gloves matching the description of those stolen.
An officer arranged a meeting with the person selling the gloves, but the person selling the gloves did not come to the meeting. Instead, it was a family member of the seller who met with the officer and took the officer’s card back for the seller.
Officers responded to an unrelated overdose case on Dec. 5. Among the witnesses who spoke with officers at the scene of the incident was the person who was selling the gloves on Facebook.
The seller told officers that he had made a trade for the gloves with a Dustin Hensley, who received them from another person whom he knew only as “Dom.” He said he was told Dom told found the gloves dumpster diving near the sporting goods stores.
He told the officer that he had given some of the gloves to family members and was attempting to sell the others. Officers asked the man to collect all the gloves he received and turn them over to police. They also asked the man to take down his Facebook buy/sell/trade ad.
On Jan. 18, officers spoke with the Hensley at Bannock County Jail, where he is being held on charges of grand theft, attempting to flee and aggravated assault on an officer.
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Hensley provided officers with Dom’s identity.
Using his full name, officers compared images taken from the surveillance footage to known photos of Raye.
Officers were then able to speak with Raye, who was being held at Bannock County Jail for misdemeanor charges of petty theft and resisting arrest. According to the affidavit, Raye denied taking any items from the sporting goods store or even being there, but he could not explain why two people interviewed separately identified him as the person in possession of the stolen merchandise.
Raye has since been sentenced to fines and time served for the misdemeanor charges. He is currently being held on a $20,000 bond for the felony charges.
Though Raye has been charged with this crime, it does not necessarily mean he committed it. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
If he is found guilty, Raye would face up to 14 years in prison.