PHOTO: San Diego County Sheriff’s Department
The San Diego Sheriff’s Department has cited eight people in connection to an investigation into the online price-gouging of high-demand items amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Deputies began monitoring peer-to-peer sales websites and apps and found people selling hygiene products, cleaning supplies, and personal protective equipment at inflated prices — some up to twenty times their retail price.
Plainclothes deputies arranged to meet sellers to purchase the items, at which point they cited them for violation of California Penal Code 396(a), which prohibits excessive and unjustified price increases of consumer goods and services during a declared emergency.
The eight people cited were:
Dale Gottschalk (53) of unincorporated El Cajon
David Gold (53) of Escondido
David Noriani (35) of San Diego
Tony Dai Ta (53) of Poway
Chasity Lynn Long-Ross (45) of San Marcos
Richard McCake Simpson (47) of Vista
Spencer Ryan Silva (26) of Escondido
Eric Marc Duran (58) of Rainbow
