Deputies close in on alleged prolific Denver-area shoplifter
Douglas County Sheriff's deputies on Tuesday closed in on a man they believe may be responsible for retail theft of as much as $25,000 around the Denver metro area.
30-year-old Aaron Wessels-Penn with a last known address in Pueblo was nabbed outside the Target store near Lucent Boulevard while wheeling a cart full of allegedly stolen goods.
"When he came out and saw us, he pushed the cart into the roadway and then tried to flee, but he tried to flee back into the store where the door was closed," said Sheriff Darren Weekly.
That's where Wessels-Penn ran out of luck.
"They look for the high-dollar small items that they can load into a shopping cart. And then get out the store with them," said Weekly about a plague of retail theft that has spread throughout the metro area. "What we're finding out, these are oftentimes organized crime rings."
But he noted there is no indication yet that Wessels-Penn was part of an organized retail theft ring.
There are a lot of stolen medications from the Target. Smaller boxes of high-dollar items are often more lucrative to thieves. They end up often marketed on the internet.
The sheriff says they have found, "a lot of these individuals might be doing this to fuel a drug habit or some other addiction."
Other communities are also trying to fight retail crime. Some are setting up stings. In Wheat Ridge, police have shared videos of what they believe are organized thieves hitting an Ulta store.
There they steal perfumes and colognes, easily marketed online and even exported to other states or possibly out of the country.
Weekly points out that his department will respond to calls about shoplifting and that claims that law enforcement won't act to stop shoplifting are false.
"Nothing can be further from the truth. We absolutely will respond to all of these… if you allow crime to bleed into your community and you do nothing about it, to address it, the problem is only going to get worse."
The charges though can be relatively minor. Wessels-Penn was out of jail quickly after his arrest, after posting a bond of $1,250.