Milwaukee family’s apparent Black Friday tradition — stealing from Target — leads to arrest warrants

PORT WASHINGTON – Black Friday deals apparently weren't quite good enough for some visitors to the Grafton Target store, who police say were just trying to steal the season's hottest gifts — apparently something of a family holiday tradition.

An employee recognized the group because they had hit the Target last year for Black Friday.

This year, as Grafton police rolled up on the Target on Thanksgiving evening, they saw the suspects pushing carts loaded with electronics. The holiday shoplifters bolted, one on foot and two in a vehicle, and they left an 11-year-old girl behind.

The investigation got stranger from there, but in the end, three of the crew have been charged so far. The girl's parents were supposed to make their initial court appearances Tuesday in Ozaukee County Circuit Court but didn't show up, so warrants were issued for their arrests.

Shaumbay Harvey, 35, and Gail McCurry, 35, both of Milwaukee, face charges of retail theft, obstructing an officer and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in the Thanksgiving incident. On Monday, they were hit with new charges from a 2014 Black Friday shoplifting incident at the same Grafton Target.

McCurry has an extensive history of shoplifting convictions, mostly misdemeanors, in several counties going back to 2002. Harvey has no prior theft convictions.

According to the complaint in the recent case:

Shortly before midnight on Thanksgiving, a Target worker noticed some people loading up carts with expensive electronics like the new XBox One gaming console. The employee recognized some of the people as having been in the store last year and called police.

Officers arrived quickly and saw the group in the parking lot with two carts filled with what turned out to be about $1,400 worth of merchandise. Some of the suspects heeded commands to stop, including the girl, and they were taken to the police station.

The girl identified McCurry as her mother. Police called her, but McCurry said she was working third shift and couldn't pick up her daughter. After the call, police compared McCurry's driver's license and probation photos to photos taken by Target surveillance and realized she had actually been in on the theft.

Meanwhile, another minor being held by police was calling McCurry, and police were listening in. They had detailed discussions about another car that was still in the Target lot, loaded with stolen merchandise. McCurry told one of the callers to make sure McCurry got one of the XBoxes.

Initially, the 11-year-old told an officer only that she had been at the Target with "Daddy's people" but later admitted she had been trying to cover for her parents.  Police then matched Harvey's driver's license photo to more surveillance images from Target.

Meanwhile, someone arrived at Grafton Police Department to pick up the other juveniles, identifying himself at "Tyrese Lowe," but a sergeant immediately recognized him as another person involved in the shoplifting earlier in the night and arrested him on charges of retail theft.

One of the other suspects at the station had called the man Darnell. "Lowe" denied knowing the person or being involved in the shoplifting. His true identity was later found to be Donnell B. Finch, 18. He is charged in Ozaukee County with retail theft greater than $5,000 and two counts of obstructing an officer.

The recent charges from the 2014 incident accuse Harvey and McCurry of being part of a crew that took four Apple iPads from the Grafton Target about 10:30 p.m. on Black Friday. That time, a store loss prevention employee had information that a crew had hit a Target in West Milwaukee earlier that day. He approached the suspects and asked if they needed help, but they said no. 

The group's method was different then. They had put the iPads into large purses carried by some women. They left the store without paying, got into a waiting car and got away.

After the arrests in this year's case, investigators revisited the 2014 store surveillance video and identified Harvey and McCurry as being among the suspects.