A Chinese national woman, who has been charged with returning a fake replica of an iPad at Cranberry Township store in December, is part of an organization that is responsible for $1 million in losses due to retail thefts, according to police.

Township police arrested Li W. Chen, 46, on Thursday, Jan. 9, and charged her with a felony count of forgery and misdemeanor charges of theft by deception, receiving stolen property and possessing an instrument of crime, and placed in her Butler County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Chen went into Target on Dec. 15 with an Apple iPad box, claimed she bought and wanted to return it. She had a receipt from a Target store in Kentucky saying the device was bought Dec. 9. She received a refund of $1,270 to her credit card, according to an affidavit. The iPad was later discovered to be a fake replica, police said.

Over the last 30 days, Chen committed identical returns of fake iPads at dozens of Target stores in Butler, Allegheny, Beaver and Washington counties, according to the affidavit.

A Target investigator told police Chen is part of an organization that is responsible for $1 million in losses in 2024 using similar manners to theft by deception, according to the affidavit.

Two credit cards that Chen used to accept the refund were used to buy over $192,000 in iPads from Target and over $177,000 was returned to those cards following fraudulent refunds in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia and Pennsylvania, according to the complaint.

Chen told police she was a Chinese national, but refused to identify herself, police said.