Recent incidents in Maryland, California and Pennsylvania have seen thieves abscond with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise from Nike, Macy’s, Target and other stores.
Over the course of June and July, police in Maryland arrested six suspects—four of which are minors—in connection with a series of retail store “pack thefts,’ the Montgomery County Department of Police said Thursday. The individuals are accused of entering stores in groups of three to eight people and stealing large amounts of items from 11 Montgomery County stores—two Nikes, three Targets, four Sephoras and two Ultas—between April 28 and June 15.
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The suspects also are accused of hitting more than 80 stores in Washington, D.C., police added, including CVS, with an estimated loss of more than $22,000, and Macy’s, with a loss of $24,000. Ulta’s losses, including those in Montgomery County as well as other jurisdictions, totaled $78,000, police said. Losses for all the stores in Montgomery County combined totaled approximately $49,000.
In Vallejo, Calif., meanwhile, a thief broke into a store selling high-end sneakers, jewelry and skateboards, stealing the shop’s “entire inventory” just months after opening, a local NBC station reported Thursday. The suspect reportedly made off with more than $150,000 in merchandise.
In Frazer, Penn., police arrested an Ohio man last week for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of clothing from Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Officers found the man with a duct tape-lined garment bag that could evade security sensors. The Frazer Township Police Department said officers found $7,000 worth of stolen Nike, Polo and Gap clothing in a rental car they searched, presumably stolen that day. According to Trib Live, store officials told police the individual had stolen from the store on three separate occasions in May and June, making off with $5,000 worth of perfume each time.
In Minnesota, Brooklyn Center police accused a 19-year-old Minneapolis suspect of stealing $5,864 worth of merchandise from the same TJ Maxx store 25 different times during the six months through March this year, CCX Media reported Monday.
Though retail crime and shrink have become a growing concern among retailers of late—John Lewis head Sharon White, speaking to the BBC Sunday, said shoplifting had grown 26 percent in the last year—UBS analyst Michael Lasser argued last month that recent data suggest shrink will reach a “turning point” soon. This prediction comes as authorities in California and New York City have unveiled plans to turn organized retail crime around. In New York, this has included establishing diversion programs to allow non-violent offenders to avoid prosecution or incarceration by engaging with services to help address underlying factors that lead to shoplifting.
One strategy that politicians have endorsed as a means of curtailing shoplifting does not appear to be working, however. Initial analysis from Times Union analyzing the effect of New York rolling back bail reform last year “only marginally” affected judges’ decisions in low-level misdemeanor cases, the daily newspaper reported Sunday.
