'Shoplifting For Hire': Shoplifters Taking Orders Online, Then Selling Stolen Goods For Profit
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- At the NVS Hair Store in Penn Hills, there's 24-hour security, but still, shoplifting is a constant, unwelcome problem. It's one that store owners have no choice but to deal with.
Like all retailers, NVS employees, along with surveillance cameras, are on the lookout for the ultimate bargain hunter - that person who wants something for nothing.
Store manager Annetta Carter said, "I've seen it all. People take things that you wouldn't believe they would take, but they do, and it's a year-round circumstance."
Alexis Taylor, who works at NVS, said, "There's already been two incidents where we had to come out and look around and see where our [stolen] merchandise was being taken."
With the explosion of social media, would-be shoplifters have found new ways to keep the customer satisfied.
A Braddock woman is facing charges after a shoplifting incident at the Old Navy store in Monroeville's Miracle Mile Shopping Center. Cierra Lynn Burley is accused of multiple counts of receiving stolen property.
When questioned by investigators, police said Burley not only admitted to the Old Navy thefts, but she said she also stole from a Dollar Tree store, Shop 'N Save, J.C.Penney's, and the Century III Mall.
Burley's name was also posted on Facebook, along with the names of many other so-called "boosters," which are people who admit to stealing store merchandise, then selling the items. Customers make orders online, then those orders are fulfilled by boosters, and they sell the items to the customer for profit.
You might call it "shoplifting for hire."
And, with the start of the holiday shoplifting season just around corner, police departments are on high alert.
"As the Christmas season approaches, and the holiday shopping increases, there's obviously an influx of people into the area, and an influx of shopping," Ross Township Police Det. Brian Kohlhepp said. "With that, there's a higher chance of crime, be that retail theft, breaking into cars."