Rockwell man charged with ongoing criminal conduct, accused of fraud at grocery self-checkout stations

MASON CITY — A Rockwell man has been accused of committing fraud multiple times at local grocery store self-checkout stations.

A criminal complaint states that 28-year-old Blake Braun would allegedly take groceries to a self-checkout station, but instead of scanning the groceries, he’d mostly scan a barcode in his hand for a product worth only 36 cents.

Braun is accused of doing this 16 different times at the HyVee East location in Mason City and 20 different times across town at HyVee West. The complaint states the loss from both stores totaled over $3500.

Braun was charged with ongoing criminal conduct, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison, as well as two counts of second-degree theft, each a Class D felony. Braun is due in court for his preliminary hearing on January 3rd.