Police: UCF book store worker made $24K reselling stolen textbooks

A 39-year-old man is accused of stealing $24,000 worth of textbooks from the Barnes and Noble student bookstore at the University of Central Florida.

Campus police said Jose Alonzo, who worked at the bookstore, stole books to resell at CB&S bookstore over a 14-month period.

The manager of the campus bookstore told police that he received an email from CB&S bookstore saying that Alonzo was repeatedly selling textbooks, and they were often the same books.

The email listed all the textbooks that Alonzo sold to the store, and the manager later saw Alonzo on surveillance video stealing the books, police said.

Police said the surveillance video showed Alonzo holding a book and walking to a blind spot where he was out of the camera’s view.

The video showed him walking to another camera blind spot as he left, then avoiding the anti-shoplifting devices, police said.

When police confronted Alonzo, he told officers that he had done the same thing in 2009, police said.

Alonzo told police that he made about $24,000 since January 2016 reselling stolen textbooks, according to authorities.

Alonzo was arrested on charges of second-degree grand theft and was trespassed from the campus.

Cox Media Group