Three arrested for stealing hundreds of DVDs

They rented movies from supermarket kiosks using debit cards.

But three Nesquehoning residents allegedly had no intention of returning the DVDs, knowing that the cards didn’t have the funds to cover the late fees they incurred.

Tabitha McIntosh, 35; George McIntosh, 41; and Susan Binder, 57; are believed to have stolen hundreds of DVDs from kiosks around Carbon County over a three-year period. The stores include Jim Thorpe Market, Redner’s Warehouse Market in Nesquehoning, and Convenient Food Mart in Palmerton.

Police recovered more than 300 DVDs from the suspects, and another 100 are unaccounted for.

All three admitted to detectives that they participated in the scheme.

George McIntosh told a detective he had probably bought 10-20 movies legitimately, and the rest were rented and never returned.

Tabitha McIntosh said she and George realized that if they rented the movies using debit and prepaid credit cards, the kiosk owner would be unable to charge them late fees.

Tabitha said it snowballed after they told Binder about the scam, and she started providing them with cards and telling them what movies to pick up.

Binder admitted that she gave debit cards to the Tabitha and George McIntosh so they could get movies for her. She said they all exchanged stolen movies.

A total of 110 movies weren’t returned to the Jim Thorpe Market Kiosk between August 2016-March 2019, for a total loss of $3,000, Jim Thorpe Police stated in the affidavits.

Nesquehoning Police said the total amount stolen from Redner’s over the same period was 128 movies, worth $3,519.20.

Palmerton Police said the DVDs stolen from the kiosk at Convenient Food Mart was $609.50.

Police did not identify any of the stolen movies.

Debbie Smith, one of the owners of New Release DVD, said the suspects were seen on video and used cards with the accounts in their names.

She estimated that her company has had millions of transactions with people renting movies, and only a handful are “very bad people.”

“I can tell you this is not the first time that we’ve pressed charges on people, it’s not going to be the last time we press charges on people, and we have a 100 percent success rate of prosecuting,” she said.

The three departments filed a long list of charges against the trio on Tuesday, including theft, receiving stolen property, and conspiracy.

George McIntosh faces 25 counts of theft and related charges, while Tabitha McIntosh and Susan Binder each face 32 counts.

Magisterial District Judge Eric Schrantz arraigned the suspects on the charges and released them on $5,000 unsecured bail each.