Police arrest store owner & employee

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A day after police searched a business on Terre Haute’s north side, one of the store's employees appeared in court facing 19 felony and misdemeanor charges.

The newly created Special Investigation Unit with the Terre Haute Police department, spent ten months working a case against the business.
The unit found possibly stolen jewelry.

Assistant Chief Shawn Keen says, "In these types of cases, a lot of times what we use are confidential informants who will go in and they’ll be audio and video recorded and will conduct transactions."

Police arrested the store owner of North Side Collectibles Don Bland and Todd Carter, a store employee for multiple charges.

Assistant Chief Shawn Keen says the business purchased various amounts of used jewelry multiple times from the same people and never asked for identification which is required by law.

The detective with the Special Investigation Unit who worked the case stated in his report that the business was operating under a “don't ask, don't tell kind of policy."

"When you go to a place and know they aren't going to follow the law, then they've created a higher demand for stolen property and thus that will increase the crimes that get reported to us and the victims we encounter,” said Keen.

Keen stated in the press conference Thursday that the department created the special unit to go after businesses that generate property crime.

"The major contributing factor to the volume of these types of property crimes involves the ability of those who steal from others to then convert those items into cash,” said Keen.

Keen says there's a distinct possibility of more arrest warrants in the future linked to the North Side Collectibles case.

Bland and Carter faces a series of felony and misdemeanor charges, including one felony count of Corrupt Business Influence, two felony counts of Money Laundering, eight counts of Attempted Receiving Stolen Property and eight misdemeanor counts of Failing to Keep Adequate Records on the Purchase and Sale of Jewelry.

Bland faces one extra felony count of Corrupt Business Influence.