Land Park neighbors say Target is a target for thieves as crime spills over to their homes
SACRAMENTO -- Neighbors in Land Park are fed up that their local Target store at Riverside and Broadway has become a near-nightly target of thieves, calling the store a "bad neighbor."
They believe it's a magnet for crime to their surrounding homes -- and several shoppers said they are going out of their way to shop at different Target locations or other stores entirely to avoid it altogether.
"There are plenty of places I can go shopping where I don't have to deal with the crime, the theft," said Kristina Rogers, president of the Land Park Community Association. She also lives less than half a mile from the Target.
She says neighbors are so fed up that one even staked out the store Tuesday night. She says it did not take long for this neighbor to capture video, provided to CBS13, that shows at least two people leave through the side emergency door with presumably stolen items in carts.
"It's really disturbing and disheartening when you are standing there in line paying for things and someone is just walking out the door with a cart full of stuff," said Rogers. "Because criminals know it's easier to steal here, they start looking around and say where else can I go in this neighborhood?"
Neighbor Stephanie Duncan provided home surveillance video to CBS13 showing exactly that. At least five times recently, Duncan's cameras have caught people in her driveway less than a mile away from the Target peeking into her car and trying to open the doors.
"If the corporation is not going to support the community, we don't want to support them," said Duncan. "It draws thieves. Because of that, it draws criminals to our neighborhood. Whether they are homeless, whether they are not homeless."
Duncan says she contacted the Sacramento Police Department months ago in April about the constant Target theft.
She provided a copy of their response to CBS13 in which the department told her that, without Target participating in pursuing any charges, they cannot take any enforcement action.
"They say, well we can't do anything about that. We're not allowed to do anything about that. That is their choice. That is corporate policy's choice," said Duncan of Target.
It's not an issue unique to Target, especially along the Broadway corridor in Land Park.
"We lost Starbucks a year and a half ago. We lost Jamba Juice. Walgreens is really struggling right now," said Rogers, attributing it to the theft and frequent drug use nearby.
Retail theft is up nationwide.
Data from the National Retail Federation, the industry's biggest trade group, shows that large-scale store theft is becoming a bigger part of retail shrink. The group reports that annual shrink reached $94.5 billion in 2021, up from $90.8 billion from 2020. Nearly half was attributed to large-scale theft of products.
"It would be cheaper to hire police officers to be here during business hours to arrest people who are trying to steal and deter that criminal activity," said Duncan.
The Land Park neighbors say they will continue to take action to try and save their community from crime.
"And keep looking and keep taking videos. Because right now they are not going to get up and move anywhere. This is our neighborhood, this is our community," said Rogers.
CBS13 reached out to Target corporate for a response to this story Thursday, asking questions including what Target's policy is on theft, how and when it is reported to police, and how many police reports have been filed by Sacramento Target stores recently. A spokesperson for the company responded with this statement:
"At Target, we take a multi-layered approach to combatting theft. This includes in-store technology, training for store leaders and security team members, and partnerships with law enforcement agencies as well as retail trade associations. While we don't share specifics on these strategies, these decisions are generally made at a local level."
