A Laramie man pleaded guilty to felony shoplifting in Albany County District Court Thursday, Jan. 26.

Brian McGuire was arrested and charged with theft as the result of a Laramie Police investigation into a report that an Ace Hardware employee was stealing from the store on Oct. 19.

The officer spoke with McGuire after viewing surveillance footage that showed McGuire taking items from the store, covering them with his jacket and leaving the store without paying for them.

McGuire told the officer he was ashamed of himself and had intended to keep the items for his own use.

After confronting McGuire, the officer received multiple calls from the Ace Hardware human resources manager, saying they had found more footage of McGuire taking items from the store. The manager also said McGuire’s girlfriend had contacted the store and said she had been given several items from the store several months before and was not sure if they were stolen.

The human resources manager ran the bar codes of two of the possibly stolen items and determined that these items were missing from the store, as there were fewer physical items on the shelves than the computer indicated there should be.

The officer also ran the bar codes of the items McGuire’s girlfriend said were given to her and the computer again indicated there were fewer in the store than there should be.

The officer contacted McGuire who admitted to stealing the items in his girlfriend’s possession, as well as other items currently located at his residence.

McGuire said the stealing began when we borrowed some tools from the store to renovate the breakroom in Ace Hardware. McGuire said he put the tools in his personal tool bag and realized later that he had forgot to return the tools. He considered returning them but didn’t. He admitted to taking more items from Ace.

The total value of the items taken was estimated to be $2,650.30

McGuire will be sentenced pending a presentence investigation.

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