Police pull rug out from under home goods fraud suspect accused of bilking $380,000

By Jennifer Emert

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — A Georgia man accused of defrauding a national discount retail chain out of hundreds of thousands of dollars is facing felony charges.

According to a federal factual basis document, Enos R. Blount targeted TJX Companies—first in western North Carolina, then across the United States—between November 2021 and January 2025. TJX Companies include TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Homesense and HomeGoods stores.

Federal court records outline how authorities believe Blount manipulated TJ Maxx’s return policy to “fraudulently enrich himself.”

The scheme According to court documents, Blount would buy merchandise from stores that carried less expensive merchandise and then return the merchandise to a TJX store for more than he paid for the item. Federal documents said Blount often used area rugs to carry out the scheme.

Authorities say Blount would purchase rugs for less than $50 at different stores, like Ross, then “return” them to TJX Companies, which sold more expensive rugs that ranged between $129.99 and $999.99.

The court document said that the rugs were typically sold rolled up, making it difficult for the TJX clerk to tell the difference in size and quality between one area rug and another.

Blount pictured bringing in non-TJX merchandise to the Asheville TJ Maxx store to obtain a fraudulent refund February 17, 2024. (Photo Credit: US Attorney’s Office, Western District Asheville)

Law enforcement claims Blount would steal the TJX price tag of a similar item from within the store, generally taking it from an expensive item to maximize the difference. Blount would then take the rug bought at the non-TJX store to a TJX brand store and present the TJX tag stolen from a similar, but more expensive, item and return the item without a receipt by “misrepresenting it” to the clerk as an item that he bought at a TJX store.

TJX’s return policy allows for a return without a receipt for store credit in the form of a TJX store gift card. Because TJX story policy capped the amount that an individual could return without a receipt, Blount continued his scheme by using falsified ID’s.

Court documents said Blount would then drive to a different TJX store and use the gift card to buy TJX items. He’d leave that store with the items and, more importantly, the receipt. Authorities said he would then travel to a third TJX store and return the merchandise that he bought using the gift card and present the receipt. Since TJX’s return policy permits cash or credit to a debit/credit account if the customer has a receipt, Blount was able to convert the TJX gift card into cash or credit to his debit/credit account.

Not only was he manipulating merchandise, according to authorities, but at times, Blount also altered and manipulated the receipts to improve his profit.

Altered and taped TJX receipt recovered from Blount’s pocket on March 12, 2024. (Photo Credit: US Attorney’s Office, Western District Asheville)

Valid TJX receipts would have a barcode printed at the bottom. When that barcode was scanned, it would indicate whether the receipts had been used in previous returns. According to authorities, Blount “would cut the receipts, mismatch them, and then tape them back together.” Doing this would allow him to reuse the top portion of a receipt multiple times when taped to an unused barcode at the bottom.

An example in the factual basis document was a bar code off the bottom of the receipt for an inexpensive purchase that had not been returned. At the top part of a receipt for an expensive purchase that had already been returned. When scanned, the system would tell the clerk the item had not been returned, tricking the cashier into thinking that the entire receipt was valid, even though the expensive item at the top had been returned previously.

Between Nov. 1, 2021, and Jan. 25, 2025, Blount visited TJX stores in 25 different states and obtained fraudulent refunds exceeding $382,000.

Asheville case Law enforcement used an example of the fraud scheme at an Asheville TJX store to make their case.

In February 2024, authorities said Blount brought three rugs to the TJ Maxx store in Asheville and “returned” them without a receipt. They said he used the false ID of Devonte Marquis Eljiahjuan Dean to make the return. Authorities said Blount claimed to have TJX tags for the rugs but not a receipt and received $995.07 in store credit on a gift card. It was later that the store learned the rug was not a type carried by TJX stores.

Blount using TJX gift card to purchase items in Marietta, GA on February 19, 2024. (Photo Credit: US Attorney’s Office, Western District Asheville)

Two days later, authorities said Blount bought two sets of sheets and a handbag from a Marshalls store in Marietta, Georgia, using the TJX store gift card he got from returning the “fraudulent rugs” in Asheville. Blount’s total was $286.17. Thirty minutes after buying the sheets and handbag, authorities say Blount returned them to a store in Sandy Springs, Georgia, for a cash refund in two transactions. On March 12, 2024, documents said he completed a fraudulent return of a handbag, a coffee machine, and two fitness items at a Marshall’s store in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Court documents said a TJX retail theft investigator followed him from Charlotte to a HomeGoods store in Forest Acres, South Carolina, and watched as Blount made a fraudulent return of the area rug and then called local police.

Blount was arrested after authorities confirmed that Blount had two active arrest warrants in Georgia for larceny-related offenses.

Court documents say police officers searched Blount’s vehicle and recovered TJX gift cards, an altered/taped receipt, plus price tags for area rugs from Ross stores and receipts from Ross stores in Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina. According to police, one of the tags belonged to a Dynamic Rugs brand rug from Ross, showing a price of $49.99. Police said Blount had just returned a rug at the Forest Acres HomeGoods store for $129.99, a difference in price of $80.

On Jan. 8, 2025, an HIS agent interviewed Blount while he was in custody in South Carolina, where he faced state charges. That agent claimed Blount admitted to two relevant facts in that interview. First, the agent said Blount admitted that he frequently visited TJX stores across the country. Second, when asked about the fraud scheme, the agent claims Blount admitted that, “he typically bought rugs at Ross stores because they were cheap there and were good items to return at TJX stores.”

Charges Blount is charged with fraud by wire. Documents said Blount faces federal charges because each fraudulent transaction caused a wire communication to be transmitted in interstate commerce. Each transaction involving putting money on a TJX gift card or spending money sent signals to servers in Louisville, Kentucky or Las Vegas, Nevada, back to the register.

Court documents indicate Blount has reached a plea agreement with the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina and faces a plea hearing set for 10 a.m. on May 5, 2025. The crime, according to court documents, if convicted could result in a 20-year sentence, fines up to $250,000, and three years of supervised release.

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