Former Pastor Allegedly Operated $1.4 million Theft Ring to Steal From The Home Depot

A former Florida pastor has been accused of operating a multi-million dollar theft ring spanning several Florida counties. “This pastor clearly skipped over the commandment—thou shall not steal,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in a statement.

Shopping carts are parked outside a Home Depot. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File, via RNS)

Authorities arrested Robert Dell, 56, and four other associates for stealing merchandise worth more than $1.4 million from several of The Home Depot stores and then selling the merchandise on eBay under the name ‘Anointed Liquidator.” The virtual store has 100% approval rating and has registered more than 35,000 items sold over the past decade, according to its page on the online retailer’s website.

Dell faces several felony charges, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and dealing in stolen property as an organizer.

Dell is the former pastor of The Rock Church and Recovery Program, a halfway house for people recovering from drug addiction in St. Petersburg, Florida. The attorney’s office is accusing Dell of using his position “to manipulate other vulnerable people to participate in the criminal scheme.”

The Rock Church and Recovery Program have distanced themselves from Dell. “Just to clear the record. Robert Dell is NOT the pastor of the rock church,” according to a statement on their website. “He wasn’t the founding pastor either. He was the pastor when it was named the Rock Community Church and Transformation Center and hasn’t been a pastor for the last two and a half years.”

Dell’s co-conspirators, Daniel Mace and Jessica Wild, allegedly stole five to six times a day from hardware stores. According to the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, they then delivered the items to Dell’s house to be listed and sold online.

Along with Dell, Mace and Wild, authorities identified Jaclyn Dell, Robert Dell’s wife, and Karen Dell, Robert Dell’s mother, as co-conspirators. They assisted with the collection, shipment and payment of the stolen merchandise.

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Jaclyn is charged with conspiracy to RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) while Karen is charged with dealing in stolen property, according to the attorney general’s office.

According to the attorney general’s office, The Home Depot suspects Dell “operated this scheme for more than 10 years, resulting in the loss of more than $5 million.”

The alleged criminal operation was taken down through the work of Florida Organized Retail Crime Exchange (FORCE), a taskforce launched by Attorney General Moody to address retail crime.

The Attorney General’s office said that since 2019, more than 300 defendants have been charged in Florida across more than 90 cases involving organized retail theft. The conviction rate is near 100%.

“Our FORCE taskforce shut down [Dell’s] criminal operation stealing millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise from Home Depot stores across the state to resell the items on eBay,” Moody said. “We will not tolerate organized retail theft in Florida and my office will continue to combat these criminal organizations.”

Bob Smietana contributed to this story.