Free Republic

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...

Three men have been arrested after breaking into a Fiesta Mart grocery store that was without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. Dorian Young, 33, Brandon Marsh, 34, and Samuel Austin, 25, have been charged with felonies, including burglary of a building. It is unclear whether these charges were upgraded because the store was impacted by Beryl at the time of the burglary. ... The burglary happened around noon back on Monday, July 8, in the immediate aftermath of the storm. However, the arrests and charges were not announced by Houston Police Department until Saturday morning.

Urban metal theft has risen to new levels following the pandemic, with thousands of feet of wiring from streetlights, hundreds of fire hydrants, and even mausoleum nameplates being stolen to flip for small amounts of money all over the country. *** In St. Paul, Minnesota, a man was “recently hit by a car and killed while crossing a street near his home where streetlights had gone out,” the report stated. Laurellee Wirtz was widowed on Christmas Eve 2023 when her husband and dog were struck by a truck on the “pitch black” road that she and her neighbors had reported...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The owner and an employee of a Near West Side store have been arrested on felony charges, after Cook County Sheriff's police recovered $2.4 million in stolen merchandise they allegedly were selling to customers. Sheriff's police said officers executed a search warrant at the Flee Club store in the 2200 block of West Taylor Street on July 2, after investigators discovered employees were knowingly buying stolen goods and reselling them at the store.

A federal appeals court today said Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and a liberal super PAC crossed federal election lines when they flaunted their coordination in a multimillion-dollar effort to defend the Democrat in her losing bid against Donald Trump. In the landmark decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Clinton and the super PAC Correct the Record improperly used an “internet exemption” to sidestep other restrictions to set up a “Benghazi Hearing War Room” and conduct a witch hunt of critics without reporting it as a campaign expense. Neither Clinton nor Correct the Record...

Each quarter, my company Sift produces an index report to better understand the latest online fraud trends, including how businesses and consumers are affected, emerging fraud tactics, and how fraud impacts consumer behavior when making purchases online. For the past two quarters, we’ve seen a surprising generational divide emerge: Gen Z— born between 1997 and 2012—expresses more willingness than any other generation to commit digital fraud. In Q4 2023, 42% of Gen Zers admitted a willingness to engage in first-party fraud, where they dispute a purchase with their payment provider despite the purchase being legitimate. This was significantly higher than...

Walter Ringfield Jr., the 27-year-old man accused of stealing an electronic tabulator key from the Maricopa County Elections Department last month, has been charged in three other thefts within the past year. Ringfield on Tuesday pleaded not guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to one count of computer tampering for allegedly stealing the ballot tabulator key from Maricopa County on June 20, while he was employed as a temporary elections worker. In the other cases, Ringfield has been indicted by a grand jury for theft and burglary, both felonies, as well as criminal trespass, a misdemeanor. [snip] Days later, police...

CHICAGO — Two Venezuelan migrants face felony charges for allegedly stealing $1,700 worth of cologne from an Ulta Beauty store. Chicago police tracked down Jose Arbolea Rincon, 32, and Juan Tavares Bermudez, 19, by following a GPS tracker hidden inside one of the cologne boxes they took, officials said. Prosecutors said the men entered the Ulta at 1300 North Ashland around 12:30 p.m. on June 24 and loaded boxes of cologne into a book bag. The duo allegedly damaged a display case on their way out.

Across the country, copper and other valuable materials have been stolen from streetlights, statues and even gravesites, costing millions to repair. The 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles has been cast into darkness after its wiring was stolen.Credit... The 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles is wired to glow with colorful lights celebrating the city’s spirit. But the bridge, known as the “Ribbon of Light,” goes dark at night now. So do stretches of the busy 405 freeway and dozens of street blocks across the city. In St. Paul, Minn., a man was recently hit by a car and killed...

Who needs U.S. citizenship, or for that matter, legal authorization to live in the U.S. when you've got Joe Biden's open borders? That looks like the story with illegals receiving Social Security benefits, a lifetime benefit that until recently had been perceived as nominally reserved for U.S. citizens, not illegal border crossers, and which Democrats are now trying to debunk. At the debate, NewsNation reported that Trump said:“Social Security … he’s destroying it because millions of people are pouring into our country and they’re putting them onto Social Security,” Trump said. “They’re putting ‘em onto Medicare and Medicaid. Putting them...

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.

Delivery drivers in the South Bay say they're increasingly worried about becoming robbery targets. It's happening enough that at least one company, Core Mart, is now hiring armed guards to escort its drivers. ... Flavio Lopez works for another delivery company and said he wishes he had a guard or at least a second person to help him keep an eye on the merchandise. Lopez hasn’t been robbed, but he has had run-ins downtown. "Stuff you gotta deal with downtown," he said. "It is what it is." Darrell Cortez, a retired San Jose police officer who now works in corporate...

A mob of looters ransacked an Oakland gas station convenience store and caused thousands of dollars in damage as the frustrated store manager claimed police took nine hours to respond to his plea for help. The horde, who had just attended a nearby car sideshow, broke into the 76 Station near the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, according to ABC 7 News Bay Area. Owner Sam Mardaie estimated approximately 80 to 100 people broke through his store’s front door and grabbed everything they could get their hands on.

A jaw-dropping video shows the moment nearly 100 robbers ransacked a California gas station in the middle of the night. Surveillance footage displays dozens of masked and hoodie-wearing thieves taking their sweet time to grab as much as they can carry just after 4:30am on Friday at the station in crime-ridden Oakland. The raid came just days after Oakland's progressive mayor bragged about a drop in crime in the hellhole city.

An ancient French sword has mysteriously vanished after 1,300 years wedged inside a rock 32ft off the ground. The Durandal, which is France’s version of King Arthur’s legendary Excalibur, was reported missing from the clifftop village of Rocamadour on Monday. It belonged to Roland, a famous knight in French literature who was said to own the ‘indestructible’ sword, which had become an iconic part of the area.

Brinton also reached a civil settlement with a Tanzanian designer whose dress he stole ARLINGTON, Va.—Sam Brinton is a free man. The disgraced former Department of Energy official pleaded guilty to petit larceny as part of a sweetheart deal that will see him serve no jail time after facing felony charges that carried a sentence of up to 20 years. State prosecutors quietly announced the plea deal during a hearing last week in Arlington General District Court, which is just an eight-minute drive from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport where Brinton stole a Tanzanian female fashion designer's luggage containing her...

Lego’s fanbase, which famously cuts across kids, teenagers and grownup collectors, is seeing some unsavory characters break into the mix, and for all the wrong reasons. Lego products, especially the pricier sets that range from over $100 to $1,000 or more, are being targeted for theft both by individual shoplifters and larger organized retail crime rings who make a beeline for sets sitting on store shelves because they can fetch a good profit at resale both in legal and illegal channels. Miguel Zuniga, who operates a Bricks & Minifigs Lego resale franchise store in Lumita, Los Angeles County, is still...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A man was shot in the arm Saturday night while trying to steal two cases of beer from a gas station convenience store. Metro police said officers with the Hermitage Precinct responded to reports of a shooting at a Shell gas station located in the 1500 block of Lebanon Pike at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, June 22. When officers arrived, they found a 26-year-old man – who had been shot in the forearm – walking down the street. The officers tried to talk to him, but he tried to get away. He was eventually stopped and...

On a conference call with industry analysts on Thursday, Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth announced the company’s intention to eliminate a significant portion of its U.S. stores over the next three years. While describing a quarter of the 8,500 stores as “underperforming,” Wentworth announced that the company would close a “significant portion” of these locations. However, according to Wentworth, the precise number of closures is still undecided. Wentworth also stated that Walgreens will implement certain modifications at the remaining underperforming locations in an effort to bring them back to life. If that doesn’t work, then “we will continue to consider closure...

Almost 200 people have been charged in a nationwide operation probing false health care claims involving approximately $2.75 billion in losses, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday. Under its 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action, the DOJ filed charges against 193 defendants, including 76 doctors, nurse practitioners and other licensed medical professionals in 32 different federal districts across the country. The DOJ said in a nationwide law enforcement action, the government seized “over $231 million in cash, luxury vehicles, gold, and other assets.” “It does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a...