Eugene police arrest nine in retail theft sweep at Fred Meyer
Nine people were arrested in six hours at the West 11th Fred Meyer, where police ran a visible retail-theft sweep during busy store hours.
Shoppers at Fred Meyer on West 11th Avenue saw Eugene police turn the busy west Eugene store into a retail-theft dragnet, arresting nine people in six hours and putting a familiar neighborhood anchor under a heavy police presence.
From 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on April 23, detectives from the Eugene Police Department’s Property and Financial Crimes Unit worked at Fred Meyer, 3333 W. 11th Avenue. Police said the arrests included Daniel Lee Wurner, 44, on a third-degree theft charge; Ira Ulyesses Bastian, 40, on third-degree theft and a warrant; Melanie Rose Anderson, 22, on theft; Isiah Christopher Lininger, 41, on third-degree theft and a warrant; Andrew Ryan Ebat, 26, on third-degree theft; Roger Woofter, 31, on second-degree trespass; Cheri Ann Ames, 44, on theft and a warrant; and two juveniles in their mid-teens, both on third-degree theft charges.
The operation was visible because it unfolded during store hours, with customers and workers on site in one of west Eugene’s most heavily used retail corridors. Fred Meyer at 3333 W. 11th Avenue is more than a grocery stop for many residents; it is a central shopping anchor on a stretch where police and merchants have repeatedly focused on repeat theft, organized shoplifting and store security.
Eugene police said the sweep was funded through the 2025-2027 Oregon Criminal Justice Commission Organized Retail Theft Grant, which the department received in January 2026. The grant provides $84,776 for organized retail theft enforcement operations, training and administrative costs, and runs from Jan. 16, 2026, through Aug. 31, 2027.
The April 23 enforcement followed a similar west Eugene operation in January 2025, when Eugene police worked with loss-prevention staff from Coastal Farm, Home Depot, Target, Walmart and Wilco and arrested six people. In that earlier operation, police said they were focusing on frequent theft suspects and people who had shown aggression toward store employees.
The regional pressure has been clear. In March 2025, Springfield police said their targeted retail-theft missions had brought in 295 shoplifters over the prior year, plus six more arrests in joint missions with the Lane County Sheriff’s Office. Eugene police Capt. Jacob Burke has said local and major retailers are being targeted by groups that come in to steal specific items for resale, a pattern that keeps retail theft squarely on the agenda for police across Lane County.
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