Matthew & Laura Eaton Admit to Crimes on Dr Phil Show … Feds Investigate Shoplifting & Selling Items on eBay

WTF: What’s worse … Going on Dr. Phil and admitting to crimes or Dr. Phil allowing people to come on his show knowing they have committed and are presently committing crimes?

That is exactly what took place last Fall when Matthew and Laura Eaton of San Marcos appeared on the “Dr. Phil Show” to share their story and bragging about making $100,000 shoplifting and selling the items on eBay. To make matters worse, the couple had a video of their three small children accompanying them on a three-day shoplifting binge. The Dr. Phil TV show titled “Shoplifting Confessions” Nov. 19, 2008.

The Eatons have not been arrested or charged. The couple hired an attorney with the United Defense Group in Los Angeles to represent them, but the firm said Thursday they would not comment on the case.

Dave Hillen, a detective at the San Diego County sheriff’s office, said he investigated the Eatons for shoplifting before their television appearance.

Last August he received a complaint from a Target store in Vista that the couple had stolen a LEGO kit and confronted them at their home. Hillen said he noticed a pile of unopened toys in the family’s garage, but the Eatons claimed they sold the toys online.

He said the couple admitted stealing the LEGOs and he filed a misdemeanor case with the district attorney’s office.

They appeared on the show several months later, telling Dr. Phil McGraw that they made $3,500 in one week from selling stolen toys. Matthew Eaton called the thefts “easy money.”

TMZ has the shoplifter’s eBay account info.

A search warrant was served at the home last Thursday . The multi-agency San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force recently seized toys, a car and other belongings from the home of Laura and Matthew Allen Eaton on Leslie Court.

The couple were videotaped on a three-day trip with their children, during which they hit 27 stores and estimated they had stolen more than $5,000 worth of merchandise, the Times reported.

In the episode, titled “Shoplifting Confessions,” Eaton said the couple amassed nearly $1 million in stolen goods over the past seven years.

The question that also needs to be answered is what is Dr. Phil’s culpability in the crimes. How does Dr. Phil allow people to come on his show that he knows are committing criminal acts to discuss the criminal acts? He then even allowed Matthew and Laura Eaton to discuss “tricks of the trade” of shoplifting. What’s next, how to make a bomb on Dr. Phil? Tomorrow on Dr. Phil … how to break into someone’s home, steal their furniture and sell it at auction. Good grief.