Baby Formula Stolen to Support Heroin Habit: Police

A Bethlehem man and his girlfriend have been stealing hundreds of dollars of baby formula from two area stores, selling the formula and using the money to support their heroin habits, court records say.

This week, Victor Castro, 35, also known as “Moyo,” has been charged with three baby formula thefts:

• $389.36 in baby formula from the Weis Markets at Sullivan Trail and Uhler Road, Forks Township, on March 2.
• $365 in formula from the Walmart on Route 191 in Bethlehem Township on March 11.
• $437 in formula from the same Walmart on March 14.

His girlfriend, Kristen M. Fiorot, 28, whose address is listed in online court records as Bethlehem and Hellertown, has been charged in the Weis Markets theft.

Fiorot also is charged with stealing $437.62 in baby formula from the Bethlehem Township Walmart on May 13.

And she’s also charged in the March 11 theft and an Oct. 14, 2012 theft in Hanover Township (Northampton County). Online records do not say if the Hanover incident involved baby formula.

Fiorot told police about the formula-for-heroin pattern involving herself and Castro after she was arrested in the May 13 Walmart incident, the records say.

Fiorot and Castro were arraigned Tuesday afternoon for the Weis Markets incident by District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township. Fiorot was committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Taschner set Castro’s bail at $20,000 but he was already in county prison in connection with the March 11 and March 14 incidents. He was arraigned in those cases Sunday morning by Taschner, who handled weekend duty and is handling night duty this week.

In the Weis Markets incident, surveillance video showed Castro and Fiorot walking into the supermarket around 2:15 p.m. March 2, a Saturday, filling a shopping cart with at least 24 canisters of baby formula, then leaving without paying, according to a criminal complaint filed by Forks Officer Michael C. Friel.

A Weis employee followed the pair to their vehicle and got its license plate number. The police investigation found that Fiorot was the driver.

Friel interviewed her on May 16, when she admitted to the theft and identified the man in the video as her boyfriend—Castro. A photo of him matched the man in the video, the complaint says.

The criminal complaints charging Castro in the Walmart incidents list his address as 1287 Deschler St. in South Bethlehem. But the complaint for the Weis Markets incident lists his address as 1111 Marvine St. in the city’s Marvine-Pembroke neighborhood.

The March 11 incident at Walmart was captured on surveillance video, according to a criminal complaint filed by Bethlehem Township Patrolman Edward Fox III.

Fox said surveillance photos led to an anonymous tip that named the alleged thieves as a woman – later identified as Fiorot—and the man known as “Moyo,” who turned out to be Castro.