Organized theft grows across U.S.

Even as retailers look forward to the hordes of shoppers that will descend on stores beginning on Black Friday, they are girding themselves for a threat that increases during the busy shopping season: teams of organized criminals who steal merchandise in brazen, highly orchestrated heists.
In recent years, retailers and law enforcement agencies have increasingly contended with a type of theft that calls to mind Hollywood movies about jewelry or fine-art thieves, said Paul DeRoche, executive director of the Rhode Island Retail Federation and vice president of government relations at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
“The bottom line is that they form these teams and they go in and steal millions and millions of dollars,” DeRoche said.
Organized retail theft has become a serious concern across the country, costing retailers and consumers as much as $30 billion a year, according to the National Retail Federation, the country’s largest retail trade association.
Aside from impacting the bottom line of retailers, organized retail theft drives up the cost of products for consumers and poses safety risks for the public, according to the NRF.
The problem is especially prevalent in Florida and the Midwest, but exists in New England and in Rhode Island as well, DeRoche said. The threat of organized retail theft to Rhode Island retailers is significant enough that Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch held a seminar last year to alert retailers to the issue, he said.
But few, if any, criminal rings have been apprehended here, DeRoche said.
“They’re doing it, they’re probably just getting away with it,” he said.
The primary target of such criminal teams are large retailers of personal technology devices such as Best Buy and Circuit City, DeRoche said, but all retailers are vulnerable – particularly ones with larger stores in malls or other busy shopping locations.
Operating in teams of anywhere from two to five people, organized retail thieves will spend days or weeks staking out a retail shop, learning the store’s shift changes and other schedules. Typically two or three thieves will stuff merchandise into long coats and bags lined with specially designed material that deflects the infrared beams of anti-theft alarms.
“It’s incredible how sophisticated their system of robbing stores is,” DeRoche said. “There’s a driver with a van, and two or three will go in.”
Despite the serious nature of the sophisticated criminal enterprises involved, the thefts are often treated as routine shoplifting because most states – including Rhode Island – lack laws that treat organized retail theft more severely, DeRoche said.
“When they get arrested, they’re being treated as shoplifters, and that’s a misdemeanor [if the item is worth less than $500] – it’s not even a felony in some cases,” he said.
Earlier this year, the NRF unveiled a package of model legislation that states can enact to combat organized retail theft. The package of 10 bills is currently being reviewed by the American Legislative Exchange Council and the National Conference of State Legislatures. This spring, NRF joined forces with the FBI to re-launch the Retail Loss Prevention Intelligence Network as the Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network.
On Oct. 25, a House subcommittee in Congress held a hearing on organized retail theft prevention. The hearing came as Congress prepares to introduce new federal legislation to crack down on organized retail crime, according to the NRF.
“This hearing shows that Congress recognizes the seriousness of organized retail crime and is ready to do something about it,” Joseph LaRocca, the NRF’s vice president for loss prevention, said in a press release. “We hope [the] discussion will be followed soon by the introduction and passage of legislation to put those who commit organized retail crime behind bars.”
The Rhode Island Retail Federation is waiting to see if federal legislation is passed before it pursues a bill in the General Assembly to deal with organized retail crime, DeRoche said.
In the meantime, retailers in Rhode Island can expect an increased risk of organized theft in the coming months, because stores that are filled with shoppers make easier targets, he said.
“The stores will be mobbed, and they’ll be out there in force because there are so many people,” DeRoche said. •