Two Chicago men were arrested on fraud and theft charges Saturday after allegedly stealing about $4,000 in cigarettes and alcohol from Service Liquors East.

Troy Demetrius Walker, 28, Chicago, was arrested and booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 11:14 p.m. Saturday for fraud with a preliminary bond set at $5,250.

Deshario Antwain Purnell, 25, Chicago, was arrested and booked into the jail at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, also for fraud and with a preliminary bond set at $5,250.

Court documents filed Monday list the charges against both men as two counts of level 6 felony fraud and two counts of level 6 felony theft.

On Saturday, Warsaw Police Department officer Phillip Hawks responded to a theft at Service Liquors East, 3720 Lake City Highway, Warsaw. An employee reported that a man driving a red and black Dodge had just stolen $4,000 worth of alcohol and cigarettes. The employee also provided the vehicle’s license plate number and said the person who allegedly stole the alcohol and cigarettes identified himself as Terryaun L. McFadden.

While en route to Service Liquors East, Hawks located the Dodge, according to court documents. The driver of the vehicle was identified as Purnell and the passenger as Walker. As Walker exited the vehicle, several unopened cartons of cigarettes fell out of the passenger side door. Purnell and Walker were then taken to WPD for questioning.

Warsaw Detective Jeff Ticknor received consent from Purnell to search his vehicle. Purnell said the credit card he used was not declined and he never told the clerk to use the force sale option.

The alcohol and cigarettes taken from the store were found in Purnell’s vehicle.

Ticknor spoke with the Service Liquors employee who said Purnell entered the store and attempted to purchase alcoholic beverages. Purnell said his credit card probably wouldn’t work because he was exceeding his spending limit for the day. The employee attempted to run the credit card two times but it was declined by the issuer.



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Purnell told the employee to use the force option, but the employee replied, “No, you need to take this up with your bank.”

The employee said it appeared like Purnell called his bank and they gave him a code to enter to make the force option work. The employee suspected Purnell was not really talking to anyone because he couldn’t hear a voice on the other end.

Purnell gave the employee a code to use and the force option worked. Any number with the right amount of digits will cause the force option to work, according to court documents.

The sales total was $3,182.95.

After loading the alcohol into the car, Purnell entered the store again and used the force sale option to purchase $975.41 worth of cigarettes.

In reviewing the business’ security video, Ticknor saw Purnell’s card being denied and him telling the employee to use the force option. The video shows what appears to be Purnell calling his bank. Ticknor could see the homepage screen on Purnell’s cell phone, signifying the telephone was not actually being used, court documents state.