SAN DIEGO — Even by the confessional standards of the "Dr. Phil" television show, it was a whopper of an admission.
The nicely dressed couple said they had roamed several states as shoplifters, stealing mostly toys, selling them on the Internet and making as much as $1 million over seven years.
"I'm no lawyer or a cop," said talk-show host Phil McGraw, his Texas drawl mixed with incredulity, "but isn't that a federal crime?"
The wife paused a second and then said, "Yeah, it is."
Last week, a federal grand jury in San Diego agreed, handing down an indictment against Matthew Allen Eaton, 34, and his wife, Laura, 26. And, just as Dr. Phil predicted, the transcript and video of last November's show are central to the prosecution's case.
The indictment, for moving stolen goods across state lines, says the Eatons sold more than $100,000 using EBay and PayPal over a 12-month period -- a crime that prosecutors call "e-fencing."
More than 500 boxes of toys and other things were carted off when investigators from the San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force raided the couple's home in suburban San Marcos.
The Eatons had approached the "Dr. Phil" show with the offer to tell their story. They answered all his questions politely and with only slight hesitation. They even provided a home video of an out-of-state road trip -- the indictment suggests it was to Arizona and Texas -- in which they smoothly ripped off several stores with their three young children in tow and mailed the goods back home.
The toddlers, they said on the video, are good decoys.
"Sometimes we just kind of go in together as a nice little family to make it seem like we're normal people, and we don't look like the kind of people that steal," Matthew Eaton said. "We have our kids with us, and they usually always buy it."
Laura Eaton provided a typical inventory of the loot. Sometimes they would stuff goodies into their pockets; other times they would boldly walk out of stores.
"We steal diapers, wipes, shoes, socks, clothes, food," she said on the video. "This scanner, desk, the lamp, swords, filing cabinet, TV, this computer, trash can, cabinets, movies, paper shredder."
Dr. Phil is not the only person who was surprised at what the Eatons told him and a television audience of about 5 million.
"In 20 years of fraud cases, I've never seen anything like this: a taped confession before a national audience," said Secret Service agent Greg Meyer, who worked on the case.
