Tobacco News and Interesting Information

ITHACA — Tompkins County Sheriff's deputies have arrested a Syracuse man in connection with the theft last May of over $3,000 worth of cigarettes from the Xtramart in Lansing.

George Washington Jr., 47, of 116 Glenwood Avenue, was arrested on a warrant Wednesday and charged with two counts of grand larceny, sheriff's investigators said. They believe Washington and an accomplice fenced, or re-sold, cigarettes to Syracuse-area stores.

Originally arrested on cigarette larceny charges by the Skaneateles Police in July, Washington was taken into custody on a local warrant immediately after his release Wednesday from the Onondaga Correctional Facility. He was arraigned in Lansing Town Court and remanded to Tompkins County Jail on $10,000 bail.

Investigators said that in separate incidents on May 26 and May 27, Washington and Eugene S. Gilbert, 43, allegedly stole cigarettes from a cabinet in the Lansing store's office. They were aided by two unidentified women, who allegedly distracted the store clerk while they cut the locks on the office door and cabinet, investigators said.

There is a warrant out for Gilbert, who is thought to be living in Syracuse, investigators said.

While the women are not being sought at this time, investigators said, Washington and Gilbert were identified using the store's surveillance camera footage. The pair became the focus of an investigation last summer involving several law enforcement agencies from Tompkins to Ontario County.

By networking with these agencies, which were working similar cases, sheriff's investigators said they tracked down Washington and facilitated his eventual arrest via a warrant sent in August to the Onondaga Correctional Facility.

Xtramart Store Manager Craig Eastmon discovered the cut locks and missing cigarettes on May 26 when he went to reset systems following a power outage. He reviewed the footage and contacted the police.

On the video tape, Eastmon said, the suspects wore parka-like jackets and walked to the back of the store where the bathrooms and office are. One acted as a lookout, Eastmon said — frequently poking his head around the corner toward the front of the store where the camera was.

"When they were leaving, both their coats were full," Eastmon said. "You could see the carton outlines on their backs. They had cartons stuffed in their backs, fronts, everything."

The pair allegedly stole $3,600 worth of Marlboro and Newport cigarettes, Eastmon said, committing the theft while the women asked the clerk for directions. They repeated the crime the next night, but the clerk recognized them from the tape and had a friend, who happened to be at the store, go to his car and dial 911, he added.

The clerk was put on hold, Eastmon said, and the crime — which took place at about 9:50 p.m. — was 10 minutes old by the time police arrived, and the suspects had fled.

The crime, Eastmon grudgingly acknowledged, "took guts" and was more lucrative than robbing the cash register, which holds minimal bills because of frequent cash drops into the safe.

"If you sell a carton of stolen cigarettes on the street for $20, you'll get 10 times what you would've gotten out of the register," he said.

Eastmon said cigarettes are their best seller — ahead of gas, beer and groceries.

"They're probably the best part of our business right now," he said.

Xtramart Corporation keeps its employees apprised of a criminal activity involving any of its stores, Eastmon said.

"Every time something happens, we get a voice mail," he said.

The investigation is continuing, investigators said. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office at 257-1345.