Carrollton police arrested three people Monday in connection with an alleged theft ring that has targeted 11 Wal-Mart stores in Georgia and Alabama, including stores in Carrollton, Villa Rica and Bremen, to steal about $10,000 in video games.

Levar Raymone Thorton, 29, of LaGrange, Tyrell Maurice Myers, 18, of Conley, and Michael Cunningham, 19, of Union City, were charged with criminal attempt of theft by deception. Myers and Thorton were also charged with theft by deception, said Carrollton police Det. Blake Hitchcock.

Thorton and Myers have been linked to the thefts in both states, and charges are pending, according to police.

Authorities said Myers and Cunningham are students at the University of West Georgia.

Carrollton police were contacted by Wal-Mart employees last week after asset investigators determined that a group of people have been stealing Microsoft Xbox 360 video games from the Carrollton store on Highway 27 and the Villa Rica store on Highway 61.

What was unusual about the crime, Hitchcock said, was the manner in which the group had allegedly stolen the $40 to $60 games.

Hitchcock said the suspects would enter the Wal-Mart stores and buy the video game using cash. Once they had taken the game to their vehicle, police said, the suspects would carefully open the packaging and remove the authentic game disk and replace it with a blank compact disc before re-sealing the plastic package. According to Wal-Mart’s Web site, the store does not accept returns for any software, including video games, if the packaging has been opened.

Hitchcock said the suspects would then immediately return the game to the store for a cash refund, and store employees not knowing the game had ever been opened would re-shelf the game for another customer to purchase.

When a legitimate customer later bought the game and opened it at home, police said, they found the blank CD and returned it to the store. A trend began to emerge with the games that contained the mysterious blank CDs, and the corporation launched its own investigation and then contacted police.

A fourth suspect living in the Carrollton area, whose name has not been released, is also under investigation and is believed to have been leading the transactions on the Internet to sell the stolen video games through the popular online auction Web site eBay.

Hitchcock said police used video surveillance to determine 21 video games had been stolen and returned at the Carrollton store and another 17 games had been taken and refunded at the Villa Rica store. Police said a total of 84 video games had been stolen and returned in the Carroll County stores and at stores in Bremen, Newnan, Morrow, Austell, Lithia Springs, Columbus, Woodstock and Auburn, Ala.

Police said they did not know why the group was specifically targeting Wal-Mart stores or Xbox brand games.

Thorton, Myers and Cunningham were arrested Monday after authorities said Cunningham tried to purchase another video game from the Carrollton store but was refused by employees alerted to the alleged refund scam. Police then stopped an Oldsmobile the three were in on Bankhead Highway around 2 p.m. after store employees notified officers the group had been in the store again. Hitchcock said some receipts and game boxes were recovered inside the vehicle.

Hitchcock said Myers and Thorton are believed to be the main suspects involved in the case, and that Cunningham had only recently begun participating in the scheme in Carrollton.

“We haven’t seen a theft like this one before in Carrollton,” he said. “There are always different schemes, and as investigators, we have to stay ahead of the criminals. When someone steals from a store, it drives up costs for the other customers.”

Hitchcock said it is possible even more stores could have been victimized across the state. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said she was unable to confirm if this same scheme had been occurring at any of its other stores outside of Georgia and Alabama.

All three suspects were taken to the Carroll County jail.