Man at Cape Coral Walmart suspected of using demo cellphone for drug deals

Cape Coral police are investigating after a man was allegedly found conducting drug deals on a demo cellphone in a Walmart on Wednesday afternoon.

According to a CCPD incident report, the “suspicious circumstance” happened at the store at 1619 Del Prado Blvd. S.

The report states a man entered the store with his own tool kit and selected a shopping cart and began placing items in it.

He then went to the electronics section and began using a demo cellphone for around 20 minutes before he went to the bathroom and returned to do the same thing.

The report says the man used the same cellphone for around two more hours. He was confronted twice by loss prevention before finally fleeing.

An employee confronted the man and removed the demo cellphone permanently from the shelf only to find that the man had left his Facebook Messenger opened to chats about selling drugs.

Officers searched the store but didn’t find anything suspicious.

Despite the trail of evidence, the guy is still out there. Cape Coral police are not talking about the case.

Walmart declined to comment on whether this was a trend in their stores or if the company is taking action to keep demo phones from being used to facilitate drug deals.

WINK News Safety and Security Specialist Rich Kolko said the loss prevention employee was right to approach the man.

“Loss Prevention operates in two different ways,” Kolko said. “Overtly, they want to have a presence that can act as a deterrence in itself from any criminal activity. They also act covertly, where they’re dressed as a normal customer, and that helps them keep an eye on what’s going on in the store.”

“Facts are they’re probably still looking for this person, but they’ve got obviously some good video, both inside and outside the store. They’ve got phone information, some contact information. If they want to find him, they probably will be able to,” Kolko added.