Flimflam man scams Walmarts, sentenced

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - In 21 days, a Wisconsin man was able to bilk 21 Michigan Walmarts out of about $4,500, according to the Kent County Sheriff's Department.

Jeffrey Edward Lowery was charged by the department with impersonating a fire official to commit a crime, felony larceny and being a habitual offender. He was sentenced Thursday to two and a half to five years in prison.

Lowery impersonated those officials to get illegal refunds from stores, police said. He traveled hundreds of miles all over the state pulling the scam, but was arrested Aug. 23, 2010 in Ironwood -- located in the western Upper Peninsula near the Wisconsin border, about 550 miles from Grand Rapids.

Lowery would tell Walmart employees he was a fire chief, an ambulance driver or a fire investigator and show a fake ID. Then, he would tell the employees his department had purchased refrigerator filters and returned them, but had to leave for an emergency before getting the refund back.

He was there to get the cash, Lowery told the workers.

When employees questioned him, Lowery would lead them to items on the shelf that he had pre-marked, making it appear as though they were been returned.

Employees issued him the refund and he took off to the next store.

"The amount of miles he is putting on for a few hundred dollars ... however, when you add these up, he certainly could make quite a sum of money in a short amount of time," said Detective Sgt. Marc Burns, of the Kent County Sheriff's Department. "But it certainly lends credence to the fact that maybe he is hitting other stores and that there are additional victims out there."

The Kent County Prosecutor's Office worked with neighboring counties to combine charges.

On Aug. 18, KCSD first heard of the scam. Someone reported a white male entered a store, identified himself as a fire department lieutenant and received money under the refund scam.

Kent County officials said Lowery also may have scammed other businesses, and possibly tried to get drugs through local hospitals under a different name or names.