(FOX40.COM) — A man convicted in a nationwide Target gift card scam worth up to several million dollars has been sentenced after being arrested during a Sacramento County Sheriff blitz operation in December, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
Sentencing was passed down to Ningning Sun on Tuesday after he was found to be a “runner” for a supposed organized crime network that was running scams on Target gift cards from the West Coast, Midwest and deep South.
Sun was arrested in December during a blitz operation by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office after he was seen in a Target taking gift cards from his person and reshelving them while taking new gift cards.
After attempting to flee from law enforcement, Sun was arrested and some 200 gift cards “fell from his clothing”, according to the district attorney’s office.
Further investigation by law enforcement found that Sun’s car contained several thousand stolen Target gift cards from store locations throughout California.
“The cards were in bags labeled ‘done’ and ‘not complete’,” the district attorney said. “The cards in the ‘done’ bag contained gift cards that had been tampered with and ready to be reshelved so money could be siphoned off them once a customer bought them. The cards in the ‘not complete’ bags contained cards that were not yet tampered with.”
As the investigation progressed, ledgers were found containing 140 names, phone numbers and other information in Sun’s possession indicating that he was working for others.
Travel data from his car found that Sun had traveled to Target locations in Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Illinois.
Depending on how much money is placed on tampered gift cards still being used, the potential loss could range from $31,125 to $2,869,000, according to the district attorney’s office.
Sun was facing felony charges for acting as an agent involved in organized retail theft, attempted grand theft, receipt of stolen property and unlawful possession of an access card. He pled no contest to all charges.
After sentencing Sun will serve one year in county jail and will then serve two years and eight months on mandatory supervision.
Sun was also ordered by the court to stay away from all Targets and to pay Target restitution for an amount to be determined.
Matthew Nobert
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