Boca Raton Macy’s Employee Charged With Stealing Merchandise

Clive Downer (Photo: Palm Beach County Jail)

A Macy’s painter at Boca Raton’s Town Center was arrested after police said he stole merchandise from the department store using his job as a cover.

Clive Downer, 63, of Pompano Beach, was charged last Friday with organized fraud under $20,000, a felony, according to a Boca Raton Police Department arrest report. He was booked into jail the same day.

Downer works as a painter for the store and has his own private office on the second floor, the report states. Store loss prevention officers told police that since April 1, Downer allegedly selected clothing from store racks and hid it in a portable clothing rack where he kept his painting tools. He then allegedly left the store without paying.

Loss prevention officers told police they had video surveillance of the earlier incidents.

On Friday, an officer said, loss prevention was watching Downer. Police said surveillance showed him leave his office at 6:30 a.m., select four items from a clothing rack at 6:44 a.m. and put them in a plastic bag. He allegedly left the store at 6:52 a.m., passing all points of sale without paying, and put the items in a Macy’s work vehicle.

Loss prevention officers confronted Downer at 9:47 a.m., took the keys to the vehicle and searched it, the report states. They found a plastic bag containing the four items on the front passenger seat, according to the report. Police said the merchandise taken Friday was worth $124. Loss prevention officers estimated the total value of items taken since April 1 at $934.08.

Downer, when speaking to officers, allegedly told them he “had gotten in trouble today” and had taken some things he shouldn’t have, the report states. He said he put the bag in the work vehicle he uses and that no one else has access to it. He denied ever shoplifting in the past, according to the report.

Downer was ultimately released from the Palm Beach County Jail after posing $3,000 bond.