Police pop man for breast pump thefts

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Police in a Minneapolis suburb are investigating several Target store robberies after catching man with several pricey breast pumps in his possession.

Steven Shane Uman, 40, of Dallas, was stopped at the Eden Prairie, Minn., Target store last week after an employee allegedly saw him remove a bar code label from a breast pump retailing for $249.99, replacing it with a fake label so $34.99 rang up, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Friday. When confronted, Uman admitted to the switch, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The suspect inadvertently alerted authorities to a much bigger robbery scheme, police said, when he expressed concern about his dog left in a car.

When police check on the dog -- which was OK -- they saw a list of Target stores. After receiving the search warrant, police found three breast pumps, two hand-held video monitors, fraudulent Target coupons and bar code labels, gift cards for Target and Wal-Mart, and $1,900 in cash, the Pioneer Press said.

Joy Gauster, the Target employee who caught Uman, told police the case involved "numerous stores in Minnesota" dating to July, the affidavit said.