Fraudulent Exchange

EDIT:(... sorry

Do they have the video of whoever made the other fraudulent returns on that gift card? If it wasn't you, then you can't be charged, but they can charge you with accesorry. It looks very suspicious that this was a conspiracy to fraud Best Buy.
BTW---being at work is not a good alibi. They probably do have the video of who it was. They may want you to identify the person since this looks very conspiratorial.

Good luck, but you don't have much to stand on. Get a lawyer and see if the charges can be reduced, or perhaps you can pay a fine, and get lesser charge. Don't plead the gun excuse, because no one will believe it and it won't help your defense. Act remorseful, and hopefully you are, and promise to never do such a stupid thing again. That is your best defense.
Let us know the outcome!!

So, you work for Best Buy! So you should have a pretty fair idea of what's gonna happen to ya, right? So posting about it here is an attempt at what? Are you thinking that there's a way out of this you haven't thought of yet so ya popped in here to see if some light could be shed on your subject?

I liked the toss-in about about the "gun"! That really blew any semblance of crediblity you hadn't already destoyed with the do-this-or-I'll-kill-your-family-and-make-you-watch story.

Thanx for the chuckles..........;)

This gets more ridiculous by the minute.

People have tried similar defenses for thieving from the store my husband runs - did I mention that I'm the other half of a retail household? - and they've all gone to jail.

What you describe wouldn't be "blackmail" - it would be coercion. Blackmail would be, for example, if they threatened to turn you in on a bunch of other stuff you had stolen if you didn't help them with their scheme.

Your story has some holes. Somebody with a gun threatens to kill your entire family if you don't return merchandise to your employer, but then you're surprised when it turns out that it isn't a legitimate return? And, despite being a "friend of a friend", nobody can give you a name, address, or other information about who the armed thug was; despite his waving a gun around on a playground in front of a bunch of people, nobody believes you; and despite your initially claiming to have returned one hard drive, it turns out that you got caught on your fourth return; etc.

Basically, it sounds like you were involved in a scheme to swap used hard drives for new ones, then sell the new ones. (Was it through eBay? Buying and selling through eBay? If so, there's a solid record, and both eBay and PayPal will provide those records to the police.) You can expect that the manufacturer is cooperating with the police, in terms of tracking down any serial numbers to determine who originally bought the used drives, and if anybody has registered the new drives, to find out how they were obtained. If they track down somebody else involved in the scheme, assuming that there are others, will they back up your story or will they be telling the police something else?