Overview
- In early June a Tarrant County jury convicted 28‑year‑old Winston Love of organized retail theft with a deadly weapon and the jury later imposed a 45‑year prison term and a $10,000 fine.
- Authorities say investigators linked Love to a roughly 50‑day retail‑theft run in 2025 that took more than 200 LEGO sets plus coffee makers, vacuum cleaners and PlayStation controllers with reported losses exceeding about $30,000.
- Love was arrested in October 2025 after a shoplifting call at a Target in Watauga, and a search warrant at a residence recovered merchandise and documents that investigators say point to a wider ring stretching into Oklahoma.
- Before sentencing Love faced more than $1.3 million in bonds across jurisdictions and had eight outstanding felony warrants, and the probe brought together the Watauga Police Department, the Tarrant County district attorney and several municipal police departments.
- The case was the first to be tried under Texas’s revised Organized Retail Theft statute that took effect Sept. 1, 2025, and prosecutors say the verdict could shape how authorities pursue multi‑jurisdiction retail‑theft rings going forward.