Man who stole from Winnipeg store staff 'engaged in full-time dishonesty' as a job: Crown

A man who admitted to sneaking into store staff rooms to steal wallets, keys and cellphones in a string of thefts has been sentenced to over two years.

Shaun Pescitelli, 47, was arrested in April 2025 after being identified as a suspect in over a dozen incidents where employees at stores across Winnipeg discovered personal items had been stolen during their shifts, starting in late February 2025 and continuing until April that year.

"These offences, your honour, are highly dishonest," Crown attorney Nicole Roch told provincial court Associate Chief Judge Tracey Lord in a Winnipeg courtroom this week.

While court heard Pescitelli has struggled with addiction and possible mental health issues, Roch said the facts of his crimes showed they were "significantly different" than someone "engaging in spree-like behaviour" to feed an addiction.

"[This] is a person who is engaged in full-time dishonesty as essentially their form of employment," Roch said.

"People would be at work, working in their minimum-wage jobs at the malls … and then Mr. Pescitelli would indeed attend these areas and violate these people's privacy. More than one victim said, 'It felt more like my house being broken into than just somebody grabbing things from my workplace.'"

The thefts also involved some where Pescitelli would have staff give him items that he would then take off with — like lottery tickets or, in one case, a gold chain at a jewelry store worth upwards of $2,600, an agreed statement of facts provided to court said.

The incidents spanned several retail stores, including stores at different malls, along with grocery stores, a spa and a physiotherapy clinic. In a number of cases, he committed multiple thefts on the same day, the statement of facts said.

Court heard Pescitelli pleaded guilty to charges including theft under $5,000, fraud and uttering threats. He is expected to serve roughly 16 months — or 496 days — of his 885-day (approximately 2½-year) sentence going forward, after credit for time he's already served since being arrested in late April 2025 is factored in.

Roch raised concerns about what she described as Pescitelli's "astronomical" risk to reoffend, noting his criminal record includes theft, forgery and fraud offences and dates back to the 1990s. His most recent set of offences began just over a month after he was released from custody after serving another sentence.

'Nothing seems to stop you'

Defence lawyer Brett Gladstone told court Pescitelli wants to move past the part of his life that's been marked by run-ins with the law, and has the support of his mother as he works on addiction recovery and seeks an assessment for possible psychiatric conditions.

"At the end of the day, it's going to be about making the choice every day to put one foot in front of the other and do the right thing," Gladstone said.

"He's going to have to get a job. He's going to have to live like a citizen. It's going to be hard with a record like this, but there is a path forward."

When given the chance to address the court, Pescitelli noted he's working on his education in custody and has cut ties with criminal friends on the outside, as he apologized to the people whose belongings he stole.

"I am aware of the effects I caused on the victims," he said. "I did cause a lot of grief to them."

Judge Lord told Pescitelli the time he'll have to serve is meant to deter him from returning to the same lifestyle of crime once he's released.

"Each offence in and of itself isn't, you know, a catastrophe — it isn't the crime of the century.

"But when you do this again and again and again and again, you're the kind of offender that the public begins to be very frustrated with, because nothing seems to stop you," Lord said, adding Pescitelli is "not the only one."

"We hear about this in the news all the time. There's many people out there who are victimizing businesses and individuals who work in businesses on a  daily basis, and it becomes so frustrating for those people."

Lord wished Pescitelli luck as he works on his recovery and tries to forge a new path once he's released from custody.

"Because, you know, the opposite direction of what you say you intend is only going to bring you back into custody — and it will be swift, and it won't be short."