Wheat Ridge police work to combat rising Colorado trend of organized retail theft
As shoppers head for the stores as the holiday season begins, thieves are also filling out their lists. Retail theft has grown over the years to now weigh down retailers who in some areas are closing stores and blaming high theft rates. It is a combination of motive, opportunity and growing levels of organization.
"They're hitting the same store, the same type of store for instance they're hitting an Ulta Beauty or a King Soopers or whatever it might be and they're bounding around from jurisdiction to jurisdiction collecting as many products as possible," said Detective Sgt. Keith Weimer, who investigates financial and property crimes in Wheat Ridge.
Wheat Ridge is far from alone, but working on setting up stings with the cooperation of retailers.
Singular shoplifting crimes have always been and continue to be an issue, but organized retail theft claims much greater losses.
"It's no different than any other organization really other than they're operating in a criminal element," Weimer said.
In some cities there are flash mob thefts, groups that come in all at once. That type of theft is rare so far in Colorado, but shoplifters who know what they're after can easily incur thousands in losses in a single day.
"Potentially in the tens of thousands of dollars if they get a big score. We're talking about high end perfumes, detergents, vitamins, over the counter medications, high end retail clothing, you name it. If there's a demand for it and it can be sold easily on-line or in some other venue they're probably targeting it," Weimer said.
He's seen people walking out with shopping carts filled with large containers of laundry detergent.
Retailers are not in a position to halt the thieves. "They also know that the liability is extremely high and it's very costly to the retailers if they get in a confrontation or they get hurt," Weimer said.
"Guns have been brandished. Threats have been made to their life. It can be intimidating."
They are currently building a case with other jurisdictions against members of a group they believe has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars of goods.
Goods often end up on-line. "They'll end up on eBay, they'll end up on different sites like that, Craigslist, Facebook. They could end up out of country," Weimer said.
Images of other shoplifters they believe are organized shared with CBS Colorado show thieves hitting the Ulta store in Wheat Ridge. Police believe one woman hit the store three times, stealing over $6000 of colognes and perfumes.
The threshold for felony level theft has risen in recent years to $2000, making prosecuting the people at the bottom end of the organizations difficult, unless judges see them repeatedly.
Wheat Ridge police are setting up stings in cooperation with some retailers in their community. And Weimer hopes to get to the people at the top. "We're going to try to hold people accountable."