According to reports provided by the Milford Police Department, Bic employees began to notice that cases of lighters were missing from shipments in February of 2020.
An inventory report from the company's fourth-quarter in 2019 indicated that 333 cases of lighters were unaccounted for between October and December.
Between February and May of 2020, according to police records, 44 additional cases of lighters were lost.
Inventory was more closely monitored after the discoveries and the company suspected that 50-year-old Leroy Mack of Stratford, employed by the New Haven Transport Company, was the culprit.
At this point, the company reportedly hired a private investigator to monitor Mack's deliveries.
According to Milford Police Press Information Officer Marilisa Anania, empty cases found in trash receptacles were among the evidence used to implicate Mack in the thefts.
On Tuesday, Nov. 10 at approximately 10 a.m., Mack turned himself in on an active warrant for his arrest and was charged with third-degree larceny, which can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.
He left the department building 40 minutes later, according to police, and will be sentenced in December.
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