DENVER (KDVR) — Aural HiFi officially opened its storefront doors back in November of 2022. But right before that, the owner said they had a set of speakers worth $5,500 stolen.
“We had Klipsch Cornwall speakers we put a ton of time into,” Jeremy Irwin, the owner of Aural HiFi said.
Irwin said he spent about 100 hours getting the speakers ready to sell. He said in September he was contacted by a man who wanted to purchase them.
“I sent him the invoice, he bought them online then he said he was sending an employee to pick them up,” Irwin said.
The customer he said paid with a credit card online then someone picked up the speakers at Irwin’s home with the help of one of his employees.
“I have cameras in the house to watch the dog so he’s on camera for 20 minutes,” Irwin said.
Just a few days later Irwin said that the money was gone.
“Three days later I get a chargeback, they had been purchased with a stolen credit card,” Irwin said. “The owner of the credit card gets the money back, the thief gets the speakers and we get screwed.”
Irwin filed a report with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office including pictures of the man who came to pick up the speakers along with his license plate number.
“How brazen he was,” Irwin said.
Irwin said he tried to call the man after he found out the charge was fraudulent. He said the man never answered.
“One of my employees called him though and he answered,” Irwin said.
FOX31 and Channel 2 reached out to Jeffco Sheriff’s Office to get an update on the investigation. They told us they wouldn’t be able to talk to an investigator until Monday. Irwin shared a copy of the report with our news team.
“When you put that much time and effort into something it’s hard to sell them in the first place but to have them stolen,” Irwin said.
He said their team has changed policy when it comes to ordering online. He said at pickup they will ask for an ID matching the name on the card. He said they will also wait on shipping online orders to make sure the transaction goes through.
“I think that is part of the scam is get the item as soon as possible before the stolen card shows up,” Irwin said.
The speakers do have serial numbers and they have been monitoring them online to see if the person attempted to resell them.
“If he put them up somewhere to sell, we would see them,” Irwin said.