Organized shoplidting big business in southwest www.privateofficer.com

Shoplifting is a crime that cuts into everyone's pocketbook, especially during the holiday season.Often committed by organized and tech-savvy thieves, shoplifting costs U.S. consumers billions of dollars a year."It's on steroids," said Michelle Ahlmer, executive director of the Arizona Retailers Association, about the spread of retail crime.
The more products are lost and taken every year, the prices go up to cover the losses," said Brenda Harris, Wal-Mart regional asset-protection director for Arizona, Utah and Nevada.Residents also pay the price in lost sales-tax revenue on merchandise stolen. This fall, retail stores are working together to fight a rise in shoplifting, fueled by organized-crime rings and unregulated auction houses.Police and Southeast Valley retailers, including Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Safeway, Bass Pro Shops and Sports Authority, are meeting monthly to share information on trends and suspects. "Shoplifting is a serious crime," said Mesa Police Community Partnership coordinator Denise Traves, who is overseeing the new partnership between police and retailers geared to reining in thieves. "It affects everybody." The value of property lost in burglaries, auto theft and theft excluding shoplifting was $18 billion in 2006. Shoplifting losses totaled more than $40 billion that year, said Jason Beckerman, an Arizona investigator for Target stores. Southeast Valley police receive thousands of shoplifting calls each year, and that number is going up, crime data shows. The recent rise in shoplifting is fueled by organized retail-crime groups, many of them from outside the United States, and unregulated online auction houses where thieves can electronic-fence, or "e-fence," without detection, officials say.The bottom line to consumers is that it "hits us in our pocketbooks," Traves said.Southeast Valley retailers formed the Mesa Retail Asset Protection Program based on a similar program in Albuquerque, where cooperation has led to cracking several big cases. Mesa police and retailers are working with the Arizona Retailers Association, a non-profit group based in Mesa, which is starting a similar statewide program called Organized Retail Crime Alliance. While most shoplifting cases are misdemeanors, retailers hope to catch repeat offenders so prosecutors can seek longer sentences.On Sept. 19, a law used to prosecute shoplifting and related-crime got new teeth from the state Legislature. In the past, a suspect faced a Class 4 felony when tied to the theft of more than $2,000 from three different retailers in a three-day period. The new law allows for the same felony to be prosecuted if the shoplifter strikes three times in 90 days at any one store or different stores, Ahlmer said.
Tracking thieves
Most shoplifters are either amateurs who steal products for their own use or professionals who see it as a job or steal to pay for illegal drugs, said Dan Helmick, the Target assets-protection team leader for the 11 stores in the Southeast Valley. A professional shoplifter can take in $75,000 to $100,000 per year tax-free, Beckerman said.The "boosters," who are part of an organized retail-crime group, steal large quantities of merchandise at a time by loading it in bags or doing "push outs," where they roll the stolen property out of the store. They often steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in products, Harris said. They are always searching for what's in demand, such as iPods, plasma televisions, computer games, computers, and DVD sets of a TV series, she said. Other staples are painkillers, lotions, razors, herbal products and baby formula.Professionals often repackage goods to sell to individuals, at swap meets or to stores that primarily buy and sell used products, officials say. "Fast-food fencing," or selling stolen goods through online auction houses like Craigslist or eBay, has made selling stolen goods much easier, Helmick said. Pawnshops report what merchandise they purchase to police, and some second-hand stores have regulations. But online auction houses, because of consumer-privacy laws, allow sellers to remain anonymous, to use false names and addresses, and thus to avoid detection.
Prevention
Retailers often use video surveillance, security guards and loss-prevention officers to combat shoplifting. This fiscal year, Target has closed 30 investigations, made 60 arrests and is working about 16 cases in Arizona and New Mexico. Target has three investigators in Arizona to hunt down the biggest offenders here and in New Mexico. The chain also operates two forensic labs in the United States, including one in Las Vegas.Wal-Mart is working with Mesa police community-action groups to increase police presence by having the department conduct training in its parking lots. By next year, the chain plans to implement its Asset Protection Exit Greeter Program, a pilot approach already in use in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Utah, and in at least one Mesa store. It operates much like programs at Costco and Sam's Club in which customers' receipts are checked as they leave the store to ensure receipts match the items they actually have.