CD shop owner accused in $2M scheme with shoplifting addicts

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh record store owner is accused of using heroin addicts to shoplift more than $2 million worth of books, videos, and other products he resold online.

Fifty-year-old Anthony Cicero's defense attorney didn't immediately comment Thursday on charges including running a corrupt organization filed by the Pennsylvania's attorney general's office.

According to a grand jury presentment, the East Pittsburgh man stored stolen items in the back room of his Slipped Disc record store, which is located in Oakland, a trendy Pittsburgh neighborhood home to The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

The investigation stretches back to 2008, when a Barnes & Noble investigator began tracing about $30,000 a week in stolen items to the addicts allegedly employed by Cicero.