FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – A man convicted of breaking into a Fayetteville GameXChange and attempting to rob the Fayetteville Best Buy was sentenced to 10 years on Wednesday (June 3), officials say.
Scott McDonald, 27, was arrested in Sept. 2014 after trying to hide an Xbox One controller in his shorts and sneak it out of Best Buy at 464 E. Joyce Blvd. Prior to his arrest, he stole from two GameXChange stores, one in Springdale and one in Fayetteville.
He pleaded guilty to commercial burglary, theft of property, first-degree criminal mischief, nonfinancial identity fraud and third-degree battery, according to the Washington County Prosecutor’s Office. He was sentenced to 120 months in prison.
On Sept. 27, 2014 at 3:11 a.m., police came to the GameXChange at 4000 N. College Ave. in Fayetteville. Officers discovered the business had been burglarized. A store manager arrived later and gave police surveillance video that showed a man wearing a stocking mask, jacket and gloves smashing a large front window and entering the store, police said.
After getting into the GameXChange, he smashed two glass display cases to get access to video game consoles, according to police.
The manager also provided police with a receipt containing McDonald’s signature and surveillance video showing he had come into the store prior to the burglary and sold an Xbox One console, police said.
The manager also said the Xbox One McDonald sold had been stolen from the Springdale GameXChange at 104 E. Robinson Ave., according to police.
McDonald was with a woman when the Xbox One was sold at the Fayetteville GameXChange, and although they used her information to sell the console, McDonald signed the receipt, police said.
On Sept. 29, 2014, police checked with local pawn shops and learned that McDonald and the woman with him had also pawned multiple items he had burglarized from the GameXChange stores, according to police.
On Sept. 30, 2014, McDonald was arrested in an unrelated robbery case at Best Buy and booked into the Washington County Detention Center, police said. On Oct. 2, 2014, investigators questioned McDonald about the GameXChange burglaries, and he admitted to pawning and selling a large amount of stolen property from GameXChange, but he also said he didn’t burglarize the stores, according to police.
He later changed his story and admitted he was the one who had broken into and burglarized the Springdale and Fayetteville GameXChange stores and attempted to steal an Xbox One controller from Best Buy, police said.
