B.C. man banned from Home Depot after $14K in stolen tools recovered

A customer pulls a shopping cart outside a Home Depot store in Palo Alto, California, US, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024.

A British Columbia man has been placed under house arrest and banned from every Home Depot store in the province after he pleaded guilty to stealing more than $14,000 worth of tools while employed by the company.

David Tschritter, 24, was sentenced by a provincial court judge in Prince George, where, while working as an “order picker” for Home Depot customers, he admitted to carrying store merchandise into the parking lot and loading it into his own vehicle.

“Often he would put the items in empty shipping boxes before exiting the store in order to conceal them,” Judge Cassandra Malfair wrote in her sentencing decision, which was published online last week. “He then sold the stolen items on Facebook Marketplace under a pseudonym.”

The thefts, which occurred over a three-week period in 2023, were not detected by store managers until Tschritter had already stolen several thousand dollars worth of power tools, according to the judge’s decision.

Store security eventually called the police on Tschritter, who co-operated with the investigation and admitted to the thefts. A search of his home turned up “stacks of tools piled in the bedroom and entry vestibule,” the judge wrote.

The total value of the recovered items was $14,321.38, while Tschritter told investigators he had already sold several stolen items online, which could not be recovered.

“Pages of advertisements from Mr. Tschritter’s Facebook account show tools listed for sale, including those of the type recovered from his residence,” the decision said. “Mr. Tschritter claims he does not remember what tools, or how many, he had successfully sold prior to police involvement.”

‘Stressed and detached’

Tschritter, a married father of three young children, testified he was feeling “stressed and detached from reality” at the time of the offences, partially due to concerns around the health of his wife and son.

He had also been assuming more child-care duties in the home, forcing him to cut back on his hours at the hardware store, where he was the family’s sole earner, he told the court.

However, the judge found his son’s medical concerns “arose long after the offence,” and his spouse’s condition did not directly impact their household expenses or income.

“Mr. Tschritter suggests his responsibility for the offence is diminished due to the effects of an impaired mental state he was suffering at the time, namely, stress, sleep deprivation, lack of focus and spiritual disconnection,” the judge wrote.

“I am not satisfied his moral culpability was reduced due to the presence of these factors. The thefts took planning, deliberation and organization. They involved furtively concealing the items in boxes, hiding them in his vehicle, creating a marketing platform under a pseudonym, listing the items for sale and executing those sales.”

‘Sheer number’ of thefts aggravating

The judge wrote that the most significant aggravating factor in the case was Tschritter’s breach of his employer’s trust, as well as the “sheer number” of thefts that he perpetrated.

“While charged as a single count, Mr. Tschritter, in fact, made repeated thefts from his employer,” the judge wrote. “Mr. Tschritter formed a guilty mind and carried out a guilty act many times. He only stopped offending once he was caught.”

Tschritter’s lawyer sought a conditional discharge in the case, which would have removed any criminal record of the offence if he successfully met the conditions of probation.

The judge, however, found a discharge was not in the public interest, despite Tschritter’s claims that he had repaid his employer for the thefts by returning all of the stolen items he had not sold.

“The onus is on Mr. Tschritter to prove that he has or will make his employer whole for the loss suffered by his actions,” the judge wrote. “As I have found, Mr. Tschritter is either unwilling or incapable of doing that because he claims not to remember how many tools he sold before his thefts were detected.”

Banned from Home Depot

Crown prosecutors urged the judge to impose a jail sentence of between nine and 12 months, or failing that, a conditional sentence of between 18 and 24 months.

The judge ultimately imposed a conditional sentence of 14 months, during which Tschritter must remain at home, keep the peace and report regularly to a supervisor, or risk jail time. He must not leave B.C. without written permission and must not visit any Home Depot outlet in the province.

Tschritter was also ordered to perform 50 hours of community service and abstain from drugs or alcohol. “That is not because anyone says you have a problem, Mr. Tschritter,” the judge explained, addressing the offender directly. “This is jail in the community. So the idea is, if you are in real jail, you do not get to have a glass of wine. So, if you are in jail in the community, you still do not get to have that glass of wine.”