COLUMBUS – A Whitehall man is being sought for “Goodwill hunting” without paying.
Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Anthony Wayne Armstead who has been accused of stealing over $1,000 worth of merchandise from Goodwill stores around Columbus over the past year, Columbus City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer, Jr., announced Wednesday.
Pfeiffer’s office says Armstead, 52, entered a Goodwill store on the city’s north side on May 9, 2015, loaded up a shopping cart full of “new goods and men’s items,” walked out without paying, emptied the cart into his vehicle and went back inside to allegedly steal nine bed sheet sets and 30 pairs of sunglasses.
He returned the following day and filled up another shopping cart full of items and exited out a back door, said Pfeiffer.
Authorities estimate Armstead stole a total of $699.22 worth of goods in the three incidents.
On Sept. 25, Armstead, whose last known address was an apartment on Rickenbacker Avenue, allegedly stole dozens of items, including “jerseys, donated goods, and new goods” totaling approximately $200 from another Goodwill store, Pfeiffer said.
Eventually pleading guilty to charges related to the Goodwill, Armstead received a six-month suspended sentence is wanted again after being identified as the suspect who stole approximately $150 worth of clothing and electronics from a northeast side Goodwill store on March 8 of this year, First Assistant City Prosecutor Bill Hedrick said.
Pfeiffer says the 52-year-old Armstead has spent the last 30 years in and out of prison and his criminal record in Ohio dates back to 1986. It includes multiple charges of theft, aggravated burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, grand theft of a motor vehicle, and felony receiving stolen property, Pfeiffer said.
Goodwill Columbus uses the proceeds from retail sales to help fund job training, employment placement services and life skills assistance to a variety of people, including those with criminal backgrounds, Hedrick said.