Carlo Frank Settecase, 21, of Skokie has been charged with felony theft Friday. He is accused of walking through Nordstrom’s Westfield Old Orchard mall department store for several hours in a Ninja-like outfit after hours, collecting more than $30,000 worth of merchandise, and leaving with the merchandise during the next day while the store was open for business.
Police report that when store security locked the doors and left for the night on September 5, 2010, Settecase was hiding under a desk in the switchboard operator’s booth on the second floor. Settecase was recorded by store surveillance cameras walking through the store wearing a black top, with a gray hood, a ski mask over his face, black gloves, black shorts and black socks without shoes.
Video surveillance recordings show Settecase walking through the fine jewelry section, the handbag section, the men’s fragrance department, and other departments grabbing items and placing them in a mail tote box.
Settecase returned to the mailroom with store merchandise after each trip browsing through departments. He placed all of the merchandise in the mailroom during multiple treks through departments until approximately 1 a.m. on September 6.
Two employees discovered Settecase — a housekeeper at about 2:00 a.m. and another employee at 8:00 a.m. — reporting that they found Settecase on the floor inside Nordstrom after hours.
On September 6, 2010, a Nordstrom employee noticed that two expensive handbags were missing.
Nordstrom store managers reviewed store surveillance images, which also showed Settecase leaving the store September 6th with bags filled with merchandise. Nordstrom store security checked eBay and discovered that two jars of LeMar facial cream, identical to products sold at Nordstrom, were being offered on an eBay account used by Settecase.
Settecase confessed after he was confronted with the results of the investigation.
Police recovered 77 pieces of stolen merchandise at his parent’s house, where he lives. About 30 items did not have price tags, but handbags, wallets, facial creams, watches, clothing and fragrances that did have price tags had a total value of more than $29,000.
Settecase is scheduled for a Friday hearing at the Skokie courthouse.