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LA TIMES SAN DIEGO Even by the confessional standards of the "Dr. Phil"
television show, it was a whopper of an admission.
The nicely dressed couple said they had roamed several states as shoplifters,
stealing mostly toys, selling them on the Internet and making as much as $1
million over seven years.
"I'm no lawyer or a cop," said talk-show host Phil McGraw, his Texas drawl mixed
with incredulity, "but isn't that a federal crime?"
The wife paused a second and then said, "Yeah, it is."
Last week, a federal grand jury in San Diego agreed, handing down an indictment
against Matthew Allen Eaton, 34, and his wife, Laura, 26. And, just as Dr. Phil
predicted, the transcript and video of last November's show are central to the
prosecution's case.
The indictment, for moving stolen goods across state lines, says the Eatons sold
more than $100,000 using EBay and PayPal over a 12-month period -- a crime that
prosecutors call "e-fencing."
More than 500 boxes of toys and other things were carted off when investigators
from the San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force raided the couple's home in
suburban San Marcos.
The Eatons had approached the "Dr. Phil" show with the offer to tell their
story. They answered all his questions politely and with only slight hesitation.
They even provided a home video of an out-of-state road trip -- the indictment
suggests it was to Arizona and Texas -- in which they smoothly ripped off
several stores with their three young children in tow and mailed the goods back
home.
The toddlers, they said on the video, are good decoys.
"Sometimes we just kind of go in together as a nice little family to make it
seem like we're normal people, and we don't look like the kind of people that
steal," Matthew Eaton said. "We have our kids with us, and they usually always
buy it."
Laura Eaton provided a typical inventory of the loot. Sometimes they would stuff
goodies into their pockets; other times they would boldly walk out of stores.
"We steal diapers, wipes, shoes, socks, clothes, food," she said on the video.
"This scanner, desk, the lamp, swords, filing cabinet, TV, this computer, trash
can, cabinets, movies, paper shredder."
Dr. Phil is not the only person who was surprised at what the Eatons told him
and a television audience of about 5 million.
"In 20 years of fraud cases, I've never seen anything like this: a taped
confession before a national audience," said Secret Service agent Greg Meyer,
who worked on the case.
Paul Pfingst, a former two-term San Diego County district attorney and now a
high-profile defense attorney, said, "In the hall of fame of dumb crooks, these
people will have a prominent position."
The arraignment judge, U.S. Magistrate Ruben Brooks, ordered the couple to
undergo mental health counseling as a condition of bail.
By the time the couple chatted with Dr. Phil, they knew that the San Diego
County Sheriff's Department was already investigating them for shoplifting a toy
from a Target store in Vista, a possible misdemeanor. The show propelled the
investigation and brought in the feds.
So why did they go on television? Matthew Eaton told Dr. Phil that he and his
wife felt gripped by a shoplifting compulsion and that only by blowing their own
cover did they think they could stop.
"Putting it out in the open and knowing that everybody's seen us now," he said,
"it'll help us to not want to go to the stores because we're going to feel like
they're going to recognize us now. And I think it's something to help us stop."
The couple say they are kleptomaniacs, which Dr. Phil, who has a doctorate in
clinical psychology, suggested is baloney because he said kleptomaniacs steal
for thrill, not profit
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