Residents Sentenced in Designer Handbag Scheme!

Eight people from McCreary County have been sentenced in a designer-handbag scheme, the United States Attorneys Office and United States Postal Inspection Service announced Tuesday.


The scheme involved stealing designer handbags and reselling them to others and online. They shipped the bags through U.S. mail to buyers in various locations, including Hawaii and California.

In 2007, Richard Lynn Williams II, 28, and Brandon Theodore Stephens, 27, broke into the Le Sportssac distribution center warehouse in McCreary County and stole at least 2,100 bags worth more than $300,000. Stephens, who had previously worked at the warehouse, and Williams were sentenced to 17 months in jail.

Stephens and Williams sold nearly 1,000 bags to other defendants, who supplied bags to others who sold them on eBay, an online auction Web site. Other defendants in the case have been sentenced for various roles.