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Across New England and the U.S., butcher shops have allegedly fallen victim to similar scams, costing their businesses thousands of dollars worth of meat.
Butcher shops are struggling across New England — and the U.S. — with a number of shop owners reporting that they have been scammed out of thousands of dollars worth of meat.
Roberto Alonzo, owner of Eva’s Farm Butcher Shop in North Andover, initially told Boston.com earlier this month that three men allegedly placed several large orders of meat totaling to roughly $60,000 in December.
Alonzo said the men requested 700 pounds of meat to provide meals for people in homeless shelters.
But Alonzo said he later learned that the men had used stolen credit cards to purchase the meat. He contacted the police and his insurance company, but neither were able to offer much assistance — the $60,000 was gone.
Alonzo has since started a GoFundMe to raise money to cover his losses. The fundraiser had accumulated more than $18,000 as of Friday.
North Andover police told Boston.com that they are still investigating the incident, but did not provide any further details.
Paulo Xavier, owner of Local Meat Market in Milford, told Boston.com that someone placed a similarly large order at his shop. He, too, said he was told that the meat would be given to homeless people.
Xavier, who started his business in March of last year, said he was also scammed out of thousands of dollars.
“It really hit me really bad,” Xavier said. “I’m still paying because I didn’t have the money.”
On six separate occasions in December, a man using the name “John Walkers” allegedly placed and paid for orders of beef over the phone, according to a Milford police report. When the funds for the last two orders failed to go into the market’s account, Xavier knew something was wrong.
After realizing that the orders — totaling to $10,168, according to the police report — were purchased on a stolen credit card, the owners of Local Meat Market contacted the local police department for help. But just like Alonzo, Xavier said police told him there was not much they could do.
Xavier said a person using the same name placed another order at his second butcher shop in Revere. He alerted Revere police.
A widespread problem
Credit card fraud losses have been steadily increasing for years, according to Ryan Kearney, vice president and general counsel of Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
“For merchants, the financial losses as well as the reputational losses are huge,” Kearney told Boston.com. “Something that large could potentially put somebody out of business.”
While Alonzo and Xavier’s shops still remain open, another New England butcher was unable to cover its losses.
The Don Martinez Meat Market in Willimantic, Connecticut was forced to close its doors after it was allegedly scammed out of $70,000, WBZ reported.
Boston.com spoke with several other local butcher shop owners across the country who shared very similar stories to Alonzo and Xavier.
Lacey Hester, owner of Hamm’s Meat + Market in McKinney, Texas, told Boston.com that someone who also went by “John Walkers” — the same name that was given at Local Meat Market in Milford — placed multiple meat orders starting in September, totaling to nearly $100,000.
The shop lost the money, Hester said.
“There was a point in time where we thought we may have to close,” she said.
Just as Alonzo and Xavier recounted, Hester said the scammer told her that the meat would be used to feed people in need.
“He said that he was feeding the community,” Hester said.
In Kansas, someone allegedly ordered over 15,800 pounds of ground beef from a butcher shop over email on Oct. 30, according to Riley County police.
When Ryan Feil, director of processing at Meatworks of Kansas, never received a payment for the order, he said he reached out to the trucking company who allegedly told him that they had experienced the same scam “about eight or nine times before.”
“Not only were we scammed out of payment, but the trucking company was as well,” Feil said.
The total value of inventory lost at Meatworks of Kansas was $60,175, police told Boston.com.
Riley County police said the investigation remains ongoing.
Greg Brockman, owner of Prospect Butcher Co. in Brooklyn, New York, told Boston.com that his business narrowly skirted any losses from a similar scam.
A person allegedly tried to place a large order in September, he said, but the credit card they were using ended up getting declined before the purchase could be made.
Still, in most of the reported meat scam cases, the scammers were allegedly successful in actually acquiring the meat, leaving shop owners and police wondering where the hundreds of pounds of stolen meat has gone.
Brockman posed the question simply:
“What are these dudes doing with it?”
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