The 2022 wave of retail crime continues into the new year, but some merchants are triumphing as awareness of the theft problem grows.
Santiago Rico, an 18-year-old from Boca Raton, Florida, was arrested on Dec. 29 for shoplifting $1,000 worth of merchandise from a Neiman Marcus store. Three of his loss prevention officers at the luxury retail store took Rico into custody on suspicion of stealing four pairs of jeans, the Boca Raton Police Services Department reported.
Loss Prevention staff told Boca Raton police that when Rico tried to arrest the suspect, he fought back before finally taking the suspect back to his office. said he had admitted to the theft.
Rico was transferred to Boca Regional Hospital and then to Palm Beach County Jail, where he was accused of resisting arrest, resisting the retrieval of property, committing a large-scale theft, and carrying a secret, unlicensed weapon.
Walmart Rolls Out Loss Prevention Pilot
While employees at Neiman Marcus stores were able to keep items from leaving the store, companies like Walmart, CVS and Walgreens were able to lock down more of the smaller, cheaper items. We take aggressive measures against organized retail crime.
Indime
For Walmart, retailers keep beauty products, jewelry, footwear, and socks behind a glass wall that can only be unlocked via customer engagement and loss prevention solutions provider Indyme’s SmartResponse technology.
In 2022, Walmart will begin testing this new locked case. The case can be opened by an employee with a smartphone. It is designed to eliminate the need to track individual employees using appropriate physical keys. The SmartSense solution helps detect suspicious events using Indyme’s proprietary shopper behavior sensors or through integration with third-party sensors and his IP cameras.
Walmart has not disclosed how many stores the pilot will target and has not yet responded to Sourcing Journal’s request for comment.
Walmart has good reason to lock down its products, CEO Doug McMillon said in December that the increase in thefts would not only affect prices, but also that mass retailers could cut some of their more than 4,000 stores nationwide. said it may even shut down.
The retail giant recently dealt with a shoplifting incident at an Oklahoma City store. Oklahoma City Police are currently searching for a suspect charged with shoplifting and shooting a security guard Monday night.
11 arrested in Seattle criminal operation
Criminal arrests continue as the City of Seattle and Washington state crack down on retail crime. The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has arrested 11 suspected shoplifters at three different stores during a retail theft operation in downtown Seattle on Thursday afternoon, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) said in a blog post. I’m here.
During the operation, detectives and officers worked with the store’s loss prevention team to identify a prolific shoplifter in the store. Police saw multiple suspects leave the store without paying for items such as clothes, cosmetics, food, and liquor. I returned it to the store.
One of the suspects arrested for shoplifting also had nine outstanding warrants. Officers booked the man into King County Jail for theft and several of his warrants.Police have seven more suspects in the King County Jail on suspicion of theft, and he has three others. identified and released from the West District.
December robbery rocks Rainbow and Ulta Beauty stores
Shoplifting also occurred last month at an Ulta Beauty store in Mayfield Heights, Ohio and a Rainbow store in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida.
Surveillance video at an Ulta Beauty location showed three shoplifters leaving the store one night with four baskets full of unpaid merchandise, while the store manager said the suspects had stolen $28,824 worth of merchandise. I figured it was stolen.
According to the store manager, three suspects, one man and two women, passed right by the shift manager.
In Florida, a shoplifter from urban fashion retailer Rainbow stole $200 of merchandise and fled, only to find himself stuck in front of a locked door, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said the man tried to leave the store with his hands full of clothes, but the front door was locked as the store was about to close.
The sheriff’s office said the enraged suspect yelled at an employee to open the door. He dropped the clothes he was holding and tried to force the locked door open before realizing he could unlock it himself.
Before leaving, he knocked one of the store employees to the ground, lifted a pile of clothes from a nearby clothing rack, and ran off.
Five minors arrested in shoe store robbery
While much attention has been focused on how major retailers are dealing with the national theft problem, small businesses have seen first-hand how thorny the problem has become. According to a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey, nearly 56% of his small retailers said they had been shoplifted in the past year.
In Memphis, Tennessee, a hotbed of recent retail crime, five minors were arrested after stealing more than $3,000 worth of merchandise from a boutique sneaker store, according to the Memphis Police Department (MPD).
On December 29, MPD responded to a robbery at Valid Kixx. When the police arrived, they found a group of five people standing with shoes in front of a broken window.
Two 13-year-olds, two 14-year-olds, and one 15-year-old were arrested after a short foot chase. All five were charged with robbery and theft of items between $2,500 and $10,000 and taken to juvenile court.
Valid Kixx had been attacked four times in the year prior to the late December incident, making it an ongoing target for retail criminals. In November, a smash-and-grab robbery cost a retailer $100,000 of his merchandise as a masked group of 20 to 30 robbers broke a window and stole the place. I was. That investigation is still ongoing, according to MPD.
Among the many companies that lost thousands of dollars, including Detroit’s High Denim Rollers, Long Beach, Calif.’s Street Sole, and Minneapolis-based KKG Kickz, the retailer’s story is 2022’s densely populated areas. was all too common for SMBs in Because of the snatch robbery. KKG Kickz had to cease operations entirely after he endured five thefts in six months.
Businesses that have remained in business following the shoplifting incident will have to recoup their losses elsewhere. The US Chamber of Commerce said in September that 46% of small businesses had to raise prices because of shoplifting.
TikToker viral video sheds light on Marshall’s shoe swap
Smash-and-grab robberies aren’t the only retail crime merchants are fighting now.
A TikTok video went viral after it showed the alleged theft of shoes at a Marshall store. TikTok user @therealprettygabriela shows off Nike shoes packed into Madden Girl’s shoebox. According to her TikToker, which goes by the name “Gabriela,” shoppers took off their shoes at the store, put on new shoes, and replaced their new ones with their own used shoes.
“Well, who changed their shoes at Marshall,” she asked in a text overlay on the video.
The video’s top comment was over 22,700, stating, “I used to work at Nordstrom Rack and people did this a lot.” Another TikTok user of his signed, “I used to work for Target and this was pretty normal.”
