Richard Nehring and Ill-gotten Fruit

UPDATE, March 24, 2009: V. Richards in Brookfield likely to close soon
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UPDATE, October 8, 2008: Case against V. Richards owner to proceed
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Why would a successful business owner risk all he has by engaging in felonious behavior?

Waukesha -- The owner of V. Richards Market and his produce manager knowingly purchased stolen produce to sell in the upscale Brookfield grocery store, according to felony charges filed against them Tuesday in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

Charges of receiving stolen property were filed against John E. Nehring, 55, of Wauwatosa — who also owns a Sendik’s store in Shorewood and G. Groppi Food Market in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood — and his V. Richards produce manager, Angel Vasquez, 28, of Milwaukee.

The criminal complaint says the two paid $1,500 cash to a delivery driver for stolen cases of pineapple, peaches and boxes of Gala apples last summer. The produce included 70 cases of pineapples, 102 cases of peaches and 42 boxes of Gala apples, which in total were valued at $2,883, the complaint says.

...The fruit was stolen from the Milwaukee-based Tropic Banana Co., the complaint says. An employee of the N. Van Buren St. business confronted Nehring on Aug. 29 regarding the stolen produce, and both Nehring and Vasquez admitted to paying a driver for the stolen produce, according to the criminal complaint. Nehring told the employee that he would pay full price for the produce, the complaint says.

The driver, who has not been charged, told investigators that Vasquez asked him in July 2007 if he had anything he wanted to get rid of and that the store would give him a good price, the complaint says. The driver said he started taking items from the company’s warehouse and selling them to the store for cash. According to the complaint, all the stolen items were taken to V. Richards, the driver said.

The driver said Vasquez would call and give him a list of needed items, and the driver would deliver them once or twice a week. He sometimes would deliver the stolen items along with the legitimately purchased produce and other times deliver the stolen items separately, the complaint says.

I wonder if Nehring's penchant for knowingly purchasing stolen goods to sell in one of his stores only involved produce.

If he willingly accepted and sold stolen fruit, it's not much of a stretch to think he may have had a similar racket going with meat or other items.

A dishonest grocer -- That's disturbing.

I wonder what impact this will have on Nehring's stores and his employees.

They have to be concerned about the future of their jobs and their security.