{"id":747,"date":"2025-12-07T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=747"},"modified":"2025-12-06T18:34:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:34:42","slug":"pennington-county-doctor-charged-in-walmart-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/pennington-county-doctor-charged-in-walmart-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennington County Doctor Charged in Walmart Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennington County (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2013 A Fargo, North Dakota, man is accused of a multi-date theft scheme at the Thief River Falls Walmart.<\/p>\n

According to a criminal complaint, 68-year-old Ronald Maurice Smith<\/strong> has been charged with felony theft in Pennington County District Court.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege that Smith stole items worth a total of $1,160.94 over three store visits in 2023.<\/p>\n

The reported thefts happened on September 14, September 27, and October 18 at the Walmart in Thief River Falls.<\/p>\n

The case began after a Walmart employee called police around 4:14 p.m. on October 18 to report suspected shoplifting.<\/p>\n

The employee told police that a man had been changing price tickets to pay less for items.<\/p>\n

The man reportedly left the store and then drove away before officers arrived at the scene.<\/p>\n

The employee said the suspect had given him a driver\u2019s license that identified the man as Ronald Maurice Smith.<\/p>\n

An internal review later found three transactions that used the same index card UPC switch method, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the total missing merchandise from those sales was $1,160.94.<\/p>\n

Many of the items were car-related products, and one of the costlier items was described as a buffer.<\/p>\n

The employee also told police that other staff believed Smith worked as a doctor at Sanford Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A police sergeant and another officer then checked the Sanford Clinic parking lot for the suspect\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n

They found a vehicle registered to a revocable trust that included names believed to be Smith’s relatives, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Smith later spoke with the sergeant and said a Walmart employee had taken him to an office after a checkout \u201cerror.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he believed everything had been scanned and claimed he tried to correct any mistakes at the register.<\/p>\n

Smith said he had pulled a paper piece from a pack of index cards to write a note while in line.<\/p>\n

He told the sergeant he wanted to rescan the items, but said the employee refused and called for law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Smith said he became worried about his medical career and left the store office after grabbing his driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

\"Booking<\/div>\n

When questioned about the earlier two incidents, Smith reportedly said he had made a mistake and wanted to pay for the items.<\/p>\n

The sergeant told him it was too late to simply pay and close the matter, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Smith then allegedly admitted he had done something wrong and said he was under heavy stress at work.<\/p>\n

He said he was almost 69 years old, had worked in medicine for more than 38 years, and feared losing his job.<\/p>\n

Smith said this was the only time something like this had happened and that he wanted \u201cto make things right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Felony theft charges in Minnesota are governed by\u00a0Minnesota Statute 609.52<\/a>, which covers a range of property crimes.<\/p>\n

Information about court dates and filings in Pennington County can be found through the
\nMinnesota Judicial Branch<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

Walmart also outlines its loss-prevention policies and customer standards on its
\ncorporate site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At this stage, the theft charge against Ronald Maurice Smith is an allegation. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for\u00a0TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennington County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2013 A Fargo, North Dakota, man is accused of a multi-date theft scheme at the Thief River Falls Walmart. According to a criminal complaint, 68-year-old Ronald Maurice Smith has been charged with felony theft in Pennington County District Court. Prosecutors allege that Smith stole items worth a total of $1,160.94 over three… Continue reading Pennington County Doctor Charged in Walmart Theft<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[770,768,772,1759,769,1340,1161,1341,791,777,1338,1342,1343,1051,778,986,1339],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-charged","tag-county","tag-crime","tag-doctor","tag-fargo","tag-felony-theft","tag-minnesota-courts","tag-minnesota-theft-law","tag-pennington","tag-pennington-county","tag-ronald-maurice-smith","tag-sanford-health","tag-shoplifting-investigation","tag-theft","tag-thief-river-falls","tag-walmart","tag-walmart-theft","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":748,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions\/748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}