SEBASTIAN – Police arrested two men accused of stealing thousands of dollars in items from Walmart stores in thefts across the state, including in Indian River County.
The men were accused of stealing nearly $80,000 in merchandise in roughly 60 combined shoplifting episodes at Walmart stores across the state including in Sebastian and Vero Beach, according to Sebastian police records.
Walmart security contacted Sebastian police Sept. 11 about two men they said were “concealing thousands of dollars of clothing items inside tote bins in shopping carts.”
Store security told police the men were seen with a generator and tote bins containing clothing and health and beauty supplies – nearly 200 items valued at just under $4,000.
Police approached the men inside the store who they said abandoned their carts and one man ran but was caught leaving the store.
Police first used Google translate to communicate with them until a Spanish-speaking officer arrived.
One man is said to have told an officer he arrived by Uber to the store and “did not understand why he was being stopped.”
Officers found a 2025 Hyundai car in the parking lot with “countless items of merchandise still with tags” in plain view in its backseat. Some of the items store security told police were stolen from Vero Beach Walmart which had documented two men shoplifting at the store earlier that day.
Police were also told by security the men had taken almost $6,000 in “totes full of merchandise,” including vacuums, cookware, clothing, jewelry and “numerous packets of meat” during the Sept. 6 incident.
All of the items they told police were pushed in carts out of store doors without paying, “to a waiting U-Haul.”
According to court and law enforcement records, Yasnier Rojas-Castaneda, 42, of Hialeah and Heclian Rodriguez-Felipe, 28, of Miami each were arrested Sept. 11 at Sebastian Walmart, 2001 U.S. 1.
Rojas-Castaneda was charged with grand theft of $5,000 or more but less than $10,000; grand theft of $750 or more but less than $5,000; resisting an officer without violence and giving a false ID to a law enforcement officer.
Rodriguez-Felipe was charged with grand theft of $5,000 or more but less than $10,000; and grand theft $750 or more but less than $5,000.
Both men remained incarcerated in the Indian River County Jail on bonds of $120,000 and $50,000, respectively, according to court and law enforcement records.
Source: Corey Arwood is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow @coreyarwood on X, email corey.arwood@tcpalm.com or call 772-978-2246.