Teenage grocery bagger started working at Kroger and processing lots of ‘returns’ – in two weeks nearly $1m was missing

A TEENAGER hired to work as a grocery bagger at Kroger has stolen nearly $1 million worth of goods in the space of just two weeks, according to police.

Tre Brown, 19, had only just started work at the popular supermarket when cops allege he began stealing goods.

The teenager from Atlanta, Georgia was accused of pocketing $980,000 by "returning" non-existent items, making more than 40 fake transactions in the space of two weeks.

He then allegedly used the money to buy clothes, guns, and cars.

Detectives in Gwinnett County, Georgia, claimed that Brown began making false transactions immediately after he was hired by the Kroger store in December 2020.

The false items ranged in price from $75 to $87,000, with the money then transferred to several credit cards, according to cops.

Police said at the time they believed Brown started with smaller transactions but then got more ambitious as he "continued to get away with it."

Speaking to local Fox affiliate WAGA, police corporal Collin Flynn said: "This person who was stealing decided to go real big."

"This employee was essentially creating fake items. Taking those items and returning them to a credit card he had and just making up prices for those items," he went on.

"It seems like this is a rare case where things snuck through the cracks and the person was able to get away with a large amount of money in a short period of time."

Brown was alleged to have splashed out on "clothes, guns, shoes, and two vehicles" with the cash, one of which he totaled before his arrest in January 2021.

Cops said a "large sum of the money was returned" following Brown's arrest.

He was charged at the time with theft by taking, which lawyers said was likely to be deemed a felony under Georgia law if more than $500 is at stake.

The punishment for such a crime is a prison sentence of between one to ten years.

The U.S. Sun has approached Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office for comment.