A Massachusetts State Police trooper who faces a number of misdemeanor shoplifting charges in connection with thefts at Target stores in Worcester County was ordered by a judge to stay away from the retailer.
Zachariah Kent was suspended without pay by State Police effective Oct. 1. He faces a pair of cases filed in Worcester District Court: one charging him with three thefts in Worcester and one charging him with a theft in Millbury, court records show.
Kent was released on personal recognizance following his arraignment. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of shoplifting by asporation and a single count of larceny under $1,200 by single scheme, records show.
Judge Timothy Bibaud ordered Kent to stay away from all Target locations.
Kent, a 30-year-old from Sutton, was seen on video stealing dozens of times from Target stores in Milbury and Worcester using “skip scan,” a scheme described by police as paying for some items at self-checkout but failing to pay for others, police wrote in court filings.
Between January and September 2024, Kent stole close to $850 from a Milbury target, according to an application for a criminal complaint by Sgt. Christopher Polselli of Milbury police.
Police in Milbury were first alerted about the thefts on September 24 when the store’s Loss Prevention team detained Kent and identified him as a suspect in 22 prior shoplifting cases, including one on that day.
The other shoplifting incidents happened at other Target stores, but 11 happened in Milbury in 2024, Polselli wrote.
Surveillance footage captured the shoplifting cases which involved the “skip-scanning” scheme. In one instance at the Milbury store, the stolen goods were worth as little as $24.99. In another, they were worth $218.45. Polselli did not provide details about the type of merchandise reported stolen at the Target in Milbury.
On Oct. 22, Worcester police were informed by Target employees that Kent was suspected of several shoplifting incidents in Milbury and that he was suspected of thefts at a store on Lincoln Street in Worcester.
According to employees at Target’s Worcester branch, Kent stole golf balls on three separate occasions in April and June, totaling $204.96.
He was charged in this case with three counts of shoplifting by asportation. Both arraignments are set for Feb. 13. The criminal complaint by Milbury police was filed on Oct. 1 and the one by Worcester police on Oct. 22.
State Police said the agency does not tolerate “theft or dishonesty.”
“When these troubling allegations came to our attention, the department immediately relieved the accused trooper of duty, opened an internal affairs investigation, and suspended him without pay following his duty status hearing,” State Police said in a statement. “We remain fully committed to cooperating with investigators as we await the result of the criminal process.”
