Most people head to Costco for the giant tub of pretzels, the $4.99 rotisserie chicken, and the $1.50 hot dog combo that has somehow never gone up in price. On a Sunday afternoon in late June, two shoppers at a Connecticut warehouse got a very different trip out the door. It ended with handcuffs and a police escort.
The story blew up, and it should have. It’s a solid reminder that the person behind you in the self-checkout line isn’t always there for the muffins. Here’s exactly what went down, plus the other tricks police and Costco itself say you should keep an eye on the next time you’re pushing that oversized cart.
The Sunday Run That Ended in Handcuffs
On June 29, 2026, officers in South Windsor, Connecticut got a call from the Costco on Tamarack Avenue. Employees said two shoppers were actively stealing and trying to pay at the self-checkout using cards that weren’t theirs.
Police arrived around 3:53 p.m. and arrested 35-year-old Brittany Howard of the Bronx and 34-year-old Kasheem Williams of Brooklyn. When officers searched the vehicle, they found 28 different cards, each one registered to a different name, along with a stack of merchandise they believe was lifted from another store. That’s not a shopper who forgot their wallet. That’s a setup.
How Two Stores Talked and Shut It Down
Here’s the part that actually stopped them. Employees at a Costco in Enfield, about 30 minutes north, had just watched the same two people try the exact same thing. Instead of shrugging it off after the pair walked out, that store called ahead and warned the South Windsor location.
So when the two showed up in South Windsor, workers were already watching for them. That kind of store-to-store heads-up is the whole reason this ended in an arrest instead of another clean getaway. The charges piled up quick: second-degree larceny, 28 counts of payment card theft, identity theft, and conspiracy. Both suspects were held on $250,000 bonds, and both had warrants waiting for them in other states.
Why Self-Checkout Is the Soft Spot
Think about why the self-checkout lane gets targeted. There’s no cashier looking you in the eye, no one asking to see the name on your card, no small talk about your weekend plans. A machine doesn’t get suspicious. It just wants a swipe or a tap.
Police describe this as organized retail crime, and the method is straightforward. Someone gets hold of real account numbers, loads them onto cloned or stolen cards, and then bounces between locations of the same chain in one afternoon, betting that one store won’t be paying attention. The person whose name is on the card is usually sitting at home with the real card still in their wallet, having no clue their number is being run 200 miles away.
The Fake Order Email That Looks 100% Real
Now let’s talk about the stuff that hits you before you ever leave the house. One of the sneakier tricks going around lately messes with real Costco order confirmation emails. Not a badly spelled fake with a blurry logo. An actual, correctly formatted email.
According to shoppers who reported it, scammers abuse email forwarding so a genuine order confirmation lands in your inbox. Then they stuff urgent instructions into fields like the shipping name or address, something like “Order in transit, call to cancel,” followed by a phone number. Call that number and you reach a fake support agent who tries to talk you into installing remote access software, then walks you through a phony refund with fake overpayments until you’re wiring money or buying gift cards you’ll never see again.
The Prize and Membership Traps
Then there’s the classic “you’ve been specially selected” email. It dangles a high-value item or a gift card, ties it to a quick survey, and sometimes asks for a small processing fee to “release” your winnings. Real Costco promotions don’t show up as random messages telling you to pay a fee to collect a prize.
Another version leans on fear instead of greed. You get a membership renewal alert claiming your account will be canceled unless you update your payment details right now. The link goes to a fake site built to grab your card number. The tell is almost always the same: pressure and vagueness. If a message wants you to act in the next five minutes and can’t clearly say what you bought, slow down.
The Phone Call Pretending to Be Costco HQ
This one is bold. Costco has flagged calls that spoof its real phone numbers, including the home office line, so your caller ID actually shows a legitimate-looking Costco number. The caller claims to be from “Costco Chinese Member Service” and already knows your name, address, and phone number.
The pitch, laid out on Costco’s own known scams page, is that an account was opened in your name in China, it’s now full of fraud activity, and the police have been notified. They’ll even offer to talk to you in Chinese if you prefer. It’s all theater designed to rattle you into handing over more information. The fact that they already know your basic details is meant to make the whole thing feel official.
The 500-Dollars-a-Day Job That Isn’t
If you’ve gotten a text offering easy remote work with Costco, delete it. Fake recruitment messages have been going around promising $250 to $500 a day for short “online commentator” gigs, maybe 60 to 90 minutes of work, a few days a week, with a tidy base pay attached.
It sounds great, which is the point. But Costco posts real jobs only through its official careers page, not through unsolicited texts or emails. Security folks who track these schemes also point out that scammers love the Executive membership angle, sending fake messages about your 2% reward and asking you to click a link to claim it. Costco mails that reward certificate with your renewal notice, and it only goes to the primary member. If it shows up any other way, it’s bait.
What Costco Says It Will Never Do
Here’s the simple filter that cuts through almost all of it. A real Costco email will never ask you to call some random number for urgent action, and it will never ask you for your password, card number, birth date, or Social Security number in an unsolicited message.
So when something lands in your inbox, don’t click the link. Type costco.com into your browser yourself and log in to check your account and orders directly. Turn on two-factor authentication, keep an eye on your card statements for tiny “test” charges, and set up transaction alerts through your bank. If you did click something you shouldn’t have, security experts say to change your password immediately, then change it anywhere else you reused it, starting with your email.
The Move That Actually Protects You
The through-line in every one of these stories is that criminals count on you not paying attention. The Connecticut pair got caught because two stores talked to each other. The email and phone tricks work because people react fast instead of stopping to think.
So do the boring stuff. Watch the self-checkout lane around you and tell an employee if someone’s fumbling through a stack of cards. Read your card statements like you actually mean it. And treat any urgent message as guilty until proven innocent. Reports of these phishing waves keep changing shape, but the fix stays the same. A little suspicion at the register and in your inbox is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy, and it costs less than that hot dog.
