A 26-year-old Prescott Valley man will spend two-and-a-half years in prison for theft at a Walmart in Cottonwood.
Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Michael Bluff on Monday sentenced Andrew James Cook for organized retail theft. Judge Bluff also sentenced Cook to a concurrent one-year prison term for possession of drug paraphernalia and imposed six-month jail sentences for DUI and resisting arrest.
The investigation revealed that on November 19 of last year, Cook and an unknown accomplice walked into a Walmart in Cottonwood and grabbed a blanket and a shopping cart. The two men went to the jewelry section, where they placed a display case containing over $1,000 worth of watches inside the blanket. They then pushed the cart out of the store without paying.
When the theft was discovered, a Walmart loss prevention officer reviewed surveillance video and noticed one of the men was wearing a sweatshirt bearing the name of a local business.
The employee called the business and learned the man was Andrew Cook. Six days later, alert deputies with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office found Cook sitting near a bag of methamphetamine inside a vehicle that had been stopped during an unrelated incident. Cook scuffled with the deputies when they tried to arrest him. During subsequent questioning, Cook eventually admitted his involvement in the theft of the watches.