This isn’t quite what “selling books online” was supposed to mean

Sultan Ferozi got the idea to run an online store out of his parents’ place in Springfield, VA. The problem is, he’d get in trouble when filling orders because he didn’t have available copies of the books. So what did he do? He stole them from other bookstores:

Fairfax County police said yesterday that a Springfield man found a profitable way to run an online bookstore: stealing books to fill orders.

Undercover detectives caught him doing just that Wednesday at Fair Oaks Mall, authorities said. Sultan M. Ferozi, 29, was arrested with a bag full of stolen books — and numerous shipping labels with the same titles and the names of customers from around the country who had paid for them, police said.

When police searched his Mercedes sedan, they found packages filled with books ready to be shipped out, receipts from the post office and more packing materials and mailing labels, according to court records.

Ferozi is being held on $16,000 bond and charged with grand larceny, larceny with intent to distribute, petty larceny, possession of burglary tools and carrying a concealed weapon: two box-cutters that police said were used to remove price tags.

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