YORK COUNTY — Four people have been arrested and charged with stealing more than $181,000 worth of baby formula from a Conewago Township, York County warehouse over a two-year span beginning in 2016, according to a criminal complaint.
Three of the suspects are from Lancaster; the fourth is from York County, court documents say. Two of the suspects were workers at the ES3 warehouse, located on the 4800 block of Susquehanna Trail.
A total of 1,892 cases of baby formula were taken. The total value of the stolen items was $181,832.
Charged in the thefts were Brayonna Marsae Hargrove, 22, Jennifer Lynn Bagshaw, 42, and Pierre Deshawn Bagshaw, 46, all of Lancaster, and Terrance Banks, 41, of Manchester Township. They are charged with being part of a corrupt organization, conspiracy to commit theft, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.
Police began investigating the thefts in April, when an employee at the warehouse reported the attempted theft of a large amount of baby formula. The worker told police that around 4:25 a.m. on April 10, he heard a dragging sound coming from outside the warehouse. When he went to investigate, the worker said, he saw an African American man of stocky build coming from around a corner where the warehouse’s propane tanks were stored. The worker located three 55-gallon drums filled with cases of baby formula in the area.
Other employees told supervisors at the warehouse they believed Pierre Bagshaw and Banks, who were employed at the warehouse, were involved in the thefts.
The warehouse supervisors told police that the thefts of baby formula dated back to September 2016, but until the April 2018 incident, they had no names of persons who could be involved.
Police interviewed Pierre Bagshaw and Banks, and confiscated Bagshaw’s cell phone. A forensic investigation of the phone revealed text messages that implicated Bagshaw’s wife, Jennifer, Hargrove, and Banks in the theft and sale of the formula, police say.
Charges against the suspects were filed on June 26, according to the criminal complaint. Jennifer Bagshaw was arraigned on July 11 and released on $50,000 bail, according to court documents.
Pierre Bagshaw, Banks, and Hargrove are still awaiting arraignment.
