A northeast Salem man has been accused of running a major retail theft operation after police recovered nearly a half-million dollars’ worth of stolen CDs, games and toys.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office concluded a months-long investigation with the arrest of Salvador “Sal” Barraza, 48, at his Salem home on Monday, Aug. 19. He was booked into the Marion County Jail on charges of first-degree theft, organized retail theft and laundering monetary instruments. He was released to appear in court Sept. 16.
Investigators executing a search warrant found more than 10,000 items stolen from retailers such as Target and Walmart neatly stacked in Barraza’s home and shop on Northeast Evergreen Avenue in Salem, about two blocks south of Silverton Road.
Sgt. Jeremy Schwab, sheriff’s public information officer, said the investigation was largest organized retail theft case done by the office. A senior detective who the agency didn’t want to publicly identify opened the case in February.
Schwab said such cases are a priority because citizens “are paying for these items and these people are just walking out the door.”
Barraza in August 2023 formed Toyologist LLC, an Oregon business listed as operating out of his home. In a subsequent filing with the state, Barraza said Toyologist engaged in “ecommerce of reusable items, thrifted items.”
But an affidavit to justify Barraza’s arrest outlined a sophisticated operation in which he would pay shoplifters a fraction of the value of stolen items and then post them for sale at higher prices on internet marketplaces such as eBay. Thieves referred to him as “Sal Money,” the affidavit said.
Barraza’s online price for what he marked as new items were discounted from the price charged by retailers. He sold a Taylor Swift album for $31.73 while it was priced at $39.99 at Target, the affidavit said.
He would text shoplifters what he wanted – and didn’t want, the affidavit said.
“All vinyl. metal, hip hop, pop, reggae,and movie soundtracks a go if. u got any new stock – No adele or Disney wish vinyl. or small records,” according to a February text message cited in the affidavit.
In March, the investigator examined Toyologist’s account on eBay, finding 814 entries in the previous 100 days for Legos, DVDs and other items listed as “new” or “sealed.”
Officials from eBay turned over records showing Toyologist sales from July 2023 to May 2024 totaled $211,555 for 5,723 items. That included 2,416 DVDs, 38 movies and five 29-piece cake decorating icing tips.
The investigator said many of the recordings had stickers reading “Target Exclusive,” “Walmart Exclusive” and “Barnes and Noble Exclusive.”
Men suspected of shoplifting would stop by Barraza’s home and they soon received payments via an online payment system, the affidavit said.
In one instance last April, a thief fled a Target store after stuffing into a bag several vinyl records worth $862. Less than an hour later, the thief was seen leaving Barazza’s home. At about the same time, Barazza sent a $145 payment to the thief using an online account.
“Barazza will buy anything new that boosters bring him and he will resell or attempt to resell it,” the affidavit said.
The investigators established that Barazza had paid approximately $100,000 to “more than a dozen people” from July 2023 until August.
“I approximate that Barraza buys the items for one-sixth of the retail price,” the investigator wrote in the affidavit. “He has collected over $323,000 in proceeds.” He said Barazza keeps $45,000 to $110,000 in his business bank account.
After his arrest, Barraza told investigators that “he gave people lists of things he wanted to buy, understanding they were going to steal items from local retailers.”
“He said he gave into greed and the easy way of making money,” the affidavit concluded.
The recovered property, which required two large trailers to haul, will be held as evidence. Schwab said agencies later will work with the state Justice Department to return the items if the owner can be identified through bar codes and other packaging.
Such organized retail theft has become a major challenge for stores.
In July, the Springfield Police Department arrested the two men for trafficking in stolen Legos sets. A search at their store turned up 4,153 sets of Legos with an estimated value of $200,000.
“In several instances, suspects stole hundreds of dollars’ worth of Lego sets and then immediately went to the Brick Builders store to exchange the stolen items for cash: most often at a fraction of their actual retail value,” the Springfield agency said in announcing the arrests.
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Les Zaitz is editor and CEO of Salem Reporter. He co-founded the news organization in 2018. He has been a journalist in Oregon for nearly 50 years in both daily and community newspapers and digital news services. He is nationally recognized for his commitment to local journalism. He also is editor and publisher of the Malheur Enterprise in Vale, Oregon.
