Judge gives ‘good thief’ 22 months

The Oregonian Staff

HILLSBORO — Samantha Kangas and Sheri Fisher thought Karen Sue McGates was a friend, return customer and fellow business owner who, like them, wanted to share a love of scrapbooking with others.

Turns out, all McGates wanted to do was make money the easy way — by stealing at least $200,000 worth of merchandise from area scrapbooking and craft stores and selling it at huge discounts from her Beaverton home, starting in 2005.

“What she was was a good thief and a good liar,” Kangas said Monday at McGates’ sentencing in Washington County Circuit Court.

Presiding Judge Thomas W. Kohl sentenced McGates to 22 months in prison as part of a plea deal; she faced twice as much time behind bars if found guilty at trial. McGates pleaded guilty June 4 to one count of first-degree aggravated theft, racketeering and tampering with evidence.

When Kohl asked McGates whether she had anything to say, she quietly replied, “No.”

Fred Anderson, McGates’ attorney, said she was obsessive-compulsive and was on medication for bipolar disorder and several medical problems.

“You would have thought we would’ve at least gotten an apology,” Kangas said outside court. “She’s cold-hearted.”

Besides losing thousands of dollars in inventory, Kangas said she and Fisher also spent countless hours trying to determine their losses.

Police returned many stolen items found at McGates’ house in the 14200 block of Southwest Lisa Lane. She also operated on the Internet as All About Scrapbooking & More.

Kangas said they would never recoup the business they lost to her operation. “Our customers would come in and say, ‘She is so cut-rate, we can’t pass it up,’ ” Kangas told Kohl.

Rob Williams, owner of the Gresham Craft Warehouse, said the thefts “have really driven our profitability down to a painful level, to the point where we are making cuts and laying off good people.”

Karan Lee Spenst, 49, of Hillsboro was caught with a purse full of stolen items at the Gresham Craft Warehouse in January “and spilled the beans,” said Jeff Lesowski, Washington County senior deputy district attorney.

Lesowski said McGates taught Spenst how to shoplift, and they both hit several stores a week, stuffing $400 worth of items into their purses. Because she involved another person in a criminal activity, McGates was charged with racketeering.

Spenst pleaded guilty to second-degree theft in Multnomah County and has completed her community service.

As police closed in, McGates was “frantically boxing up the loot and taking off the price tags,” which led to the tampering charge, Lesowski said.

Because price tags were left on some items and others were specially manufactured for or packaged by individual stores, police were able to trace stolen goods found at McGates’ house to Craft Warehouse, Scrapbook Attack, Life’s a Scrapbook, Whimzee’s, Scattered Pictures, Peddler’s Pack and Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts stores in Washington and Multnomah counties.