King County Prosecutors have charged a California man with attempted first-degree theft and nine counts of forgery after authorities say he placed altered gift cards on racks at a Des Moines Safeway.
Jian Chen was charged July 14 in King County Superior Court, according to documents filed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The charges stem from an Oct. 7, 2024, investigation at the Safeway located at 21401 Pacific Highway South in Des Moines (map below), according to a probable cause statement prepared by Detective Chad Stillwagon of the Des Moines Police Department.
Prosecutors allege Chen attempted to wrongfully obtain more than $5,000 from Safeway and falsely made, completed or altered written instruments, described in the charging document as altered gift cards designed to redirect payments while appearing unopened to customers.
According to the probable cause statement, a Safeway employee reported a suspicious person tampering with gift cards. Police detained Chen after he left the store, and Safeway personnel told officers they had identified more than 100 altered gift cards that had been placed on the racks, the document states.
Investigators later obtained search warrants for a Honda Accord, a cross-body bag and a cellphone, according to court documents. Stillwagon wrote that 708 gift cards were recovered from the vehicle, 62 from the bag and 103 from inside Safeway, for a total of 873 gift cards.
Court documents say the investigation found cards from multiple retailers and brands, including Visa, Amazon, Apple, Nordstrom, Sephora, Target, Home Depot and others.
How Altered Gift Card Schemes Can Work
In this kind of alleged gift card scheme, the point is usually to get shoppers to unknowingly load money onto compromised cards. Prosecutors claim the cards had been altered so they still appeared unopened on the rack, but the card and PIN information had already been captured or manipulated. When a customer later bought and activated one of those cards, the money could be redirected or quickly drained by someone else instead of being available to the buyer.
In a case summary, prosecutors alleged the offense involved a major economic offense or series of offenses, citing multiple incidents or victims, a loss substantially greater than typical for the offense, a high degree of planning or sophistication, or use of a position of trust, confidence or fiduciary responsibility.
The state requested that the court issue a summons directing Chen to appear in court. Prosecutors also requested conditions barring him from new criminal law violations and from contact with any Safeway store in King County, according to the filing.
Defendants are innocent until proven guilty in court.
