Free Republic

COMPTON, Calif. -- More and more stores across the Southland and the country are taking stricter measures to fight a growing epidemic of shoplifting. At least one Rite Aid store in Compton appears to be taking security to the extreme. The store on Long Beach Boulevard installed locked glass cases on every aisle, meaning a majority of items for sale apparently require the assistance of a store employee. It's a sign of a growing and disturbing trend that's been seen in social media videos and news reports of shoplifters taking items from retailers without significant resistance by employees or security....

Dear Editor; Describing the state’s audit of Proposition 47 as “nuanced” and “flawed” is too polite and diplomatic. This audit focuses only on Riverside and San Bernardino counties, jurisdictions with law and order district attorneys and sheriffs who do not coddle criminals, unlike the too many George Soros funded D.A.s polluting so much of California. This I.E. audit implies that Prop 47 is better than it really is, where we have capable and proactive local law enforcement in these counties. Yet the proposition is still an abject failure. The proof lies in simply walking the aisles of your nearby WalMart...

BOSTON — Boston police are investigating after high-end items were stolen from several Back Bay stores Saturday. Alo and Zara, both of which are on Newbury Street, were two of the stores that were robbed in the area, which is a shopping destination for locals and tourists. Advertisement Store management at the Sunglass Hut in the nearby Prudential Mall said they were hit as well on Saturday. They said a group of men and women walked out of the store with expensive sunglasses without paying for the items.

A California shoplifter with expensive taste tried to hide from cops in the trunk of her Tesla after swiping $850 in goods from Lululemon and Sephora. Emely Yanagida, 35, was arrested for shoplifting at Irvine Spectrum Center, stealing $600 worth of make-up and $250 in workout gear. The Irvine Police Department released footage on Saturday which showed officers discover her bizarre hideout - as she hid under a bright green tarp in her Tesla's trunk. The incident occurred on Wednesday when loss prevention officers at the Sephora alerted police to a shoplifting suspect who had fled the store. Irvine police...

Shoplifting has spiked across the country so far this year — even as many major crimes like homicide dropped back to pre-pandemic levels, a major national crime study showed. Rates of shoplifting rose an average 24% during the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) Mid-Year Crime Report released Thursday. The study reviewed crime statistics from 23 cities across the US, finding shoplifting has steadily been on the rise since the country began emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic around 2022. Shoplifting has gotten lots of attention in recent...

Target plans to crack down on retail theft by lowering the threshold for how much shoplifters can swipe before employees are allowed to finally step in, according to a report. The Minnesota-based big box retail chain — which has blamed retail theft for hurting its bottom line — instructed store staff to halt bandits who try to flee with items totaling $50, down from the previous sum of $100, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.

CHICAGO — Prosecutors say a shoplifting crew stole merchandise worth more than $17,000 by raiding five Lululemon stores in under 90 minutes earlier this month. Two women face felony charges. Surveillance video from the stores showed two women entering the retailer’s West Loop location, 932 West Randolph, around 11:50 a.m. on June 14, officials said. The pair walked out with clothing and accessories without paying. They struck again 15 minutes later at the 944 West North Avenue store and 12 minutes after that at the 1627 North Damen Location. About 20 minutes later, they were in Lakeview, hitting the store...

Pat Guider was in retail for more than 40 years. Twenty-plus at the old Chase-Pitkin and then, until last week, almost another 20 at Big Lots. Almost, because they fired him. And therein lies our story. There’s been a lot of stealing lately, it’s the new entitlement of urban America. People just walk in, gather up armfuls or bagsful of merchandise, and walk out the door. The employees won’t stop them, the police won’t arrest them, the laws won’t hold them accountable. Especially in New York. In New York, retail theft – which is what they call shoplifting now –...

New York City is losing drugstores as retail theft continues to surge. Gotham has logged 21,578 shoplifting complaints this year through May 12, up 5% from the 20,552 thefts during the same period last year. Manhattan has seen 8,896 incidents of retail theft alone. Crime is so rampant, national chains like Target, CVS and Walgreens are closing locations and tempering expansion plans. Target announced at the end of last year the closure of nine stores across four states, including one in Harlem, due to theft.

Store employees in Beverly Hills were so fed up with shoplifting, they decided to put together a "new mugshot" wall-of-shame display.

NYC Now has a $4.4 billion shoplifting economy. Theft is so rampant, retailers are forced to make tough choices... Cash takes a serious look at stores starting to flee the big apple. The fall of a once great city. And one shining mall in the city is now completely vacant due in most part to shoplifting and violent crime.

Here's a look at what's gone wrong at both chains.. These are tough times for two big US dollar store chains. In the past month, Family Dollar said it will close nearly 1,000 stores and 99 Cents Only said it will go out of business. Both companies said inflation and shoplifting have contributed to their troubles. While inflation has pressured the companies' low-income customer base and shoplifting has squeezed their profits, those factors alone can't explain their difficulties. Years of strategic mistakes and underinvestment have plagued Family Dollar and 99 Cents Only, retail analysts say. Both brands were acquired by...

Florida is taking a strong stand against retail theft and “porch piracy.” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that would crack down on criminals participating in shoplifting rings and engaging in other types of property crime. While doing so, he took some shots at California and New York for going easy on those committing these offenses. Amid widespread retail theft occurring across the nation, state and local governments are grappling with putting a stop to these operations while others are simply responding with a shrug. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis announced...

Cullan Mais used to shoplift almost every day. The 31-year-old would often travel from his home in Cardiff to towns such as Abergavenny where he would then steal up to £4,000 worth of goods in a day. “We’d park up on the one end of town and we’d hit the shops,” he told ITV Cymru Wales while visiting Abergavenny for the first time since kicking his habit. “We’d take the stuff back, we’d drive back around to this side of town and do the same here. “There’s certain opticians up here, pharmacies, clothing shops, that were hit frequently. I would...

Chief Executive of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association has described an increase in thefts last year — driven mainly by robberies from shops — as “frightening”. Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Vincent Jennings said it is not just just the thefts that are concerning, but the associated incidents — such as assaults, assaults causing harm, drunkenness, misogynistic and hateful comments being made to staff and public order offenses. Annual crime figures released by the Central Statistics Office show there was a significant increase in theft offenses last year. Almost half of the more than 74,000 thefts and related...

As it moves to an online strategy amid rampant increase in shoplifting CVS is making drastic reforms to adjust to the needs of modern online shoppers Rival Walgreens also plans to shut 150 stores as part of a modernization drive CVS is set to close hundreds of stores across the country as they undergo a complete retail overhaul – as more stores move towards online sellers amid rampant increases in crime. The major drugstore chain has announced that they will be culling 300 stores by the end of 2024, and 600 more by 2027, around ten percent of all shops....

Amid heightened crime rates across the country, shoplifting has become an increasingly popular form of illicit activity. In major cities, there have been organized shoplifting rings terrorizing retail stores and their customers in the face of lax laws regarding these types of crimes.In New York, the problem has become particularly egregious, and has resulted in a thriving black market on which criminals sell the merchandise they pilfered from major and smaller retailers. Indeed, the Empire State’s shoplifting market has cost retailers billions of dollars each year as this brand of property crime continues.A shoplifting epidemic costing retailers in New York...

A shoplifting epidemic costing retailers in New York state $4.4 billion a year is creating a shadow resale economy that ranges from eBay to bodegas, The Post has learned. Shoplifting in New York City alone rose 64% from June 2019 to June 2023, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. In 2022, the total estimated loss to shops in the state was $4.4 billion, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in February. And retailers and law enforcement told The Post that the need to sell the stolen goods has created a sprawling underground economy. Thieves and middlemen are selling shoplifted goods on...

They were introduced as a way to cut lines, boost efficiency in store and reduce staffing numbers - and boomed in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic. But is the self checkout falling out of favor with big-name retailers? In recent weeks, Dollar General, Target and Walmart have all announced sweeping changes to automated registers in stores across the US. Experts say the rollback is linked, mostly, to fears around theft - as it is much easier for customers to shoplift items at the self checkout rather than a checkout with a cashier. But retailers say they are also trying to...

Washington Post writer Maura Judkis is under fire this week for a column in which she mocks shoplifting stories as the “moral panic” of a nation built on “stolen land.”It is reminiscent of those who excused rioting in past summers “as an expression of power” and demanded that the media refer to looters as “protesters.” Now, the Washington Post is suggesting that it may be just desserts for a nation of colonizers and enslavers.The prior day, the Post ran another column downplaying accounts of stores closing due to shoplifting even though employees blamed rampant shoplifting in San Francisco.Judkis wrote a...