Out-of-work plumbers busted in Home Depot scam

Atlanta police arrested a pair of brothers from Ellenwood — both down-on-their-luck plumbers — on charges that they’ve been scamming Home Depot stores in Atlanta.

Ethan Pinkston, 51, and his brother, David Pinkston, 49, were arrested Wednesday outside a Home Depot store in Buckhead. They face charges of theft by deception, forgery and criminal trespass, and David Pinkston is also charged with shoplifting.

The brothers confessed that they had been running a receipt scam at Home Depot stores in Buckhead and Midtown since November, according to an Atlanta police report.

Ethan Pinkston told an officer that they were both plumbers who had fallen on “some hard times and needed some extra cash,” the police report said. David Pinkston said they needed money “due to lack of work,” the report said.

The con worked like this, according to Atlanta police: The brothers loaded up on merchandise that matched an old receipt and returned the goods for cash.

The Pinkston brothers told police that they had stolen as much as $800 from the Home Depot stores since Thanksgiving.

Home Depot investigators started taking a closer look at the brothers as early as January.

But it wasn’t until one afternoon last week that police caught them in the act, according to the report.

Ethan Pinkston walked into the Home Depot, located at 2525 Piedmont Road, and filled a shopping cart with concrete bags, masonry nails, bathroom cleaner and other items.

He took the cart to the “returns desk” and walked away, the report said.

David Pinkston walked over to the cart and returned all but two of the items, receiving $37.53 in cash, the report said.

Police officers confronted and arrested the brothers in the parking lot, and returned the cash and items to Home Depot.