Using RFID & Other Tech to Fight ORC
Shoplifting Today Is More Sophisticated, And So Are The Tools To Fight It
Shoplifting is becoming more sophisticated and coordinated. Sometimes, retail crimes are strategic and expertly choreographed. Every step is carefully thought out - from the brand to the location to the items that are taken.

Shoplifting, A Major Safety Concern - The violence that accompanies these events is rising. Shoppers are rightly concerned about their safety while shopping, and the brand reputations of retailers are under threat.

Economy Impacts Shoplifting - One tool to fight shoplifting is analytics, which can be used to determine where shrink is occurring. Craig Szklany continues, "Understanding where crimes take place helps retailers make strategic decisions about where to place their loss prevention efforts."

Loss Prevention Systems With Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Some of these systems are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) that can identify 'red' and 'green' shoppers (thieves versus well-intentioned customers), as they move throughout the store, so retailers can respond proactively to potential threats.

Intelligence-Led Loss Prevention Technology - These systems allow retailers to quantify theft events and include data on what was stolen and how much it cost. With that information, retailers can take a proactive approach to theft prevention, by providing enhanced evidence packages to law enforcement, which increases the chances of the items being returned to stores.

Challenge Of Shift To The Internet Of Things (IoT) - Stores outfitted with integrated tags, pedestals, and AI-enabled video cameras can be connected holistically, so that retailers have a clearer insight into the thieves' journeys in real-time. That data helps prevent future theft. These technologies provide a more accurate look into what exactly went missing, when, and where, which allows retailers to respond to shoplifting, in a way that they had not been possible in the past.

Modern Loss Prevention Technologies Offer Flexibility - RFID tags allow retailers to track inventory at the item level, so they are better prepared to make decisions about stocking and promotions. Computer-vision-based AI (artificial intelligence) that identifies 'red' and 'green' shoppers can also track customer sentiments and demographics, to enable retailers to offer special discounts and enhanced customer service, in order to improve customer experiences and establish loyalty.

Benefits Of Video Loss Prevention Technologies - Video loss prevention technologies can reinforce retailers' workforce, allowing them to be proactive against theft without drawing associates from their main goal: helping customers. securityinformed.com

Deploying Facial Recognition to Fight Retail Theft
Australia probes retail giants Bunnings & Kmart over customer 'faceprints'
Australia's privacy watchdog has launched an investigation into two retail giants over their use of facial recognition technology. Hardware firm Bunnings and department store Kmart collect customers' "faceprints" in some locations.

Consumer advocacy group Choice says the technology is unethical, invasive and being used without proper consent or reasoning. Both retailers defended its use as an anti-theft and safety measure.

The Australian Information Commissioner said her office had opened an investigation to determine whether they had breached privacy laws. Australian retailers can only collect sensitive biometric information if "reasonably necessary" for their operations and they have "clear consent", Angelene Falk said.

"While deterring theft and creating a safe environment are important goals, using high privacy impact technologies in stores carries significant privacy risks," Commissioner Falk said last month, after the use of the technology was first revealed. "Retailers need to be able to demonstrate that it is a proportionate response."

Last year, she found convenience store chain 7-Eleven had interfered with customers' privacy by collecting faceprints in a similar case.

The watchdog said it was also "conducting inquiries" about another retail company, The Good Guys, which has paused its use of facial recognition technology.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has called for a ban on the technology until Australia has specific laws to regulate its use. It followed police in Western Australia using it for Covid isolation checks.

Bunnings said its use of the technology had been inaccurately characterised and there were strict controls around its use. The data collected is not used for marketing purposes, it says, and the only images retained are of people banned from stores or those suspected of illegal or threatening conduct. ca.news.yahoo.com

Bill Bratton Blasts Progressive DAs for Being 'Soft on Crime'
Alvin Bragg, liberal DAs 'turned the criminal justice system on its head', says former NYC police commissioner

Bill Bratton slams liberal DA after bodega worker is charged with murder

As crime skyrockets in many liberal-run cities, a former NYPD commissioner called out soft-on-crime politicians for embracing the "defund" movement and putting Americans at risk. Bill Bratton responded to the controversy over a 61-year-old bodega worker, Jose Alba, being charged with murder for defending his store.

"This case highlights how [DA Alvin Bragg] has turned the criminal justice system in Manhattan on its head, where he's effectively making decisions that you just shake your head at," Bratton told Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith.

Bratton argued the incident at the New York City bodega and the charges which followed highlighted the problems with liberal leadership and public safety, particularly due to the "defund police" movement.

"Most of the shootings and murders in New York City right now, indeed around the country are in those minority neighborhoods," Bratton stated. "Minority neighborhoods want the police."

New York City has seen nearly a 40% increase in violent crimes since 2021 with the past week reporting 2,623 violent crimes like murder, rape and robbery. Chicago is another city facing a violent crime surge and a recent shooting in Highland Park over the July 4th holiday.

Some cities, however, have taken steps to counter the effects of soft-on-crime policies to address the crisis. San Francisco voters recalled liberal District Attorney Chesa Boudin last month for his policies which they felt had encouraged a surge in violent crime and open-air drug trade.

Many liberal district attorneys with soft-on-crime policies are facing growing pressure to take action and re-imagine how to support law enforcement and crack down on crime. foxnews.com

Commissioner Bratton spoke to the LP community at the D&D Daily's
'Live in NYC at the NRF Big Show' event in 2016.

Manhattan DA Faces More Outrage from Store Owners
Bodega Owners Push Manhattan DA to Drop Charges Against Store Clerk

Bodega clerk charged with murder after stabbing man who confronted him in store; larceny, violent crime rising in New York

Prosecutors in New York City are reconsidering the murder charge they filed against Jose Alba, a bodega worker who fatally stabbed a man for attacking him earlier this month at a store in Harlem, according to a representative for bodega owners who recently met with the Manhattan district attorney.

Mr. Alba, 61 years old, was released from jail last week. A group representing bodega owners met Tuesday with Alvin Bragg, the district attorney in the case, to urge him to drop the charges.

Mr. Alba's case has attracted attention in New York City, where residents and business owners are coping with a recent rise in violent crime. Bodega owners have complained about the growth of petit larceny in their stores, which often serve as neighborhood gathering places, in addition to selling coffee, snacks and groceries.

Major crimes in New York City are up 38% so far this year compared with the same period in 2021, according to New York City Police Department data. Petit-larceny complaints this year have increased 44% from the same period in 2021, police statistics show.

Last month, Mr. Bragg announced a plan to crack down on shoplifting by working with police to identify and arrest individuals with high rates of recidivism. A small number of people drive retail theft in Manhattan, he said. wsj.com

What Fuels Mass Shooters?
How to combat the forces that turn young men into mass shooters

Mass shootings are nothing new in the U.S., but there's been a recent remarkable shift in the profile of the men committing them: They're getting younger.

Of the 30 deadliest shootings between 1949 and 2017, only two involved gunmen under the age of 21, according to research cited by the New York Times. In just the past two months, however, there have been three major attacks - in Buffalo, N.Y., Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park, Ill. - in which the accused shooters were men between the ages of 18 and 21. In Parkland, Fla., the attacker was 19. In Santa Fe, Texas, he was 17. In El Paso, he was 21.

Research shows that shooters frequently are going through some sort emotional crisis and are sometimes even suicidal prior to their attacks - feelings often rooted in past trauma. Experts say this shows the need for a major expansion of mental health access specifically designed for young men. Many also advocate for crisis intervention strategies targeted at those who show troubling signs they may pose an imminent danger to themselves or others.

Others say new mental health efforts must be complemented by a campaign to root out the extreme ideologies that radicalize young men into killers. They argue that that will require cracking down on fringe internet forums where racism and misogyny run rampant, as well as holding mainstream social media companies accountable for their failure to keep extremism off their platforms.

Some add that the media can play a role as well. They say many recent mass shooters are motivated by a desire for notoriety, a goal news outlets often help them achieve by drawing intense attention to their personal biographies and sharing details of the so-called manifestos they sometimes post online before they attack. Ending those practices, critics say, could decrease the chances that one killer may inspire another through their actions. yahoo.com

More mass shooters are using semi-automatic rifles - often bought legally

Crime Hits Five-Year High in Cambridge, According to Annual CPD Report

The Great Resignation Hitting NYC Hard
Why City Workers in New York Are Quitting in Droves

Competition from the private sector and the government's balky hiring practices have prompted thousands to flee city government.

New York City, the largest municipal employer in the country, is facing an exodus of city workers that has led to a surge in job vacancies and difficulties delivering basic municipal services. The city's overall job vacancy rate was 7.7 percent as of March - five times higher than in recent years, according to the most recent data from the Citizens Budget Commission.

The labor shortage has affected a wide array of city agencies. Nearly 25 percent of jobs at the Buildings Department remain empty. Resignations and retirements from the Police Department are the highest they have been in nearly two decades.

The Police Department has seen 1,400 retirements and 647 resignations this year - much higher than in 2019 before the pandemic, according to filings from the Police Pension Fund. Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement that the department was in a "staffing crisis" and that the city was losing some of its "most talented and experienced police officers" at a time when major crimes were rising.

The staffing crisis is part of a national trend: As more workers level up in the job market or set up their own businesses, and as others opt out for lack of child care, a phenomenon known as the Great Resignation has taken hold. But, to paraphrase Tolstoy, each workplace fosters unhappiness in its own way. nytimes.com

'Great Resignation' Continues - But May Be Slowing
Job market still 'red hot' despite recession fears, as Great Resignation continues

The Great Resignation is still in full swing, according to economists, though there are some signs of a slight slowdown.

Workers are still reaping the benefits of a hot labor market characterized by few layoffs, ample job openings and a high level of voluntary departures, according to U.S. Department of Labor data issued Wednesday.

The numbers reveal that the pandemic-era trend known as the Great Resignation is still in full swing despite fears of a U.S. recession, though it is showing some signs of leveling off, labor economists said.

"Overall, this doesn't look like a job market about to tip into recession," said Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at career site Glassdoor. "Labor demand is still extremely hot, and even if things are cooling from white-hot, they're still red-hot.

About 4.3 million people voluntarily left their jobs in May, about the same as in the previous month and down only slightly from their peak of more than 4.4 million in March. cnbc.com

Struggling to Cope with Large Retail Stockpiles
Large Retailers Are Getting Hit Hardest by Overstocking

Supply-chain experts say overall inventory levels remain thin while general merchandise stores cope with a supply-demand mismatch

Big retailers are struggling to cope with large stockpiles of furniture, apparel and workout equipment, yet broad measures show inventories at American companies remain exceedingly lean by historical standards.

Supply-chain experts say the gap between big retailers and the rest of the sector is the result of inventory disruptions that have affected companies differently and left big retailers most exposed to changes in consumer behavior.

Jason Miller, an associate professor of logistics at Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business, said the surplus of inventory is largely hitting general merchandise stores, including retailers like Target Corp. , Walmart Inc., Kohl's Corp. and Macy's Inc., that turn over large amounts of goods based on seasonal patterns and consumer shopping trends.

Retailers are seeing the impact of what is known in supply-chain circles as the bullwhip effect, in which companies rush to fill inventory gaps by ordering goods in large numbers only to see demand dissipate. In this case, she said, big retailers have reacted to the strong consumer demand for certain products during the pandemic by placing bigger orders to ensure they will have enough supply on the shelves.

More orders are coming through now, Ms. Baird said, and the stores are ending up with more inventory than they had expected. Even if a retailer has struck a balance between inventory and sales, goods might still be out of alignment, she said.  wsj.com

Out-of-Stock Baby Formula Crisis Continues
Baby-Formula Shortage Deepens, Defying Replenishment Efforts

Out-of-stock levels remain high in U.S. stores: 'Until those shelves are full, the crisis continues'

U.S. stores are still struggling to stock baby formula despite monthslong efforts by manufacturers and the Biden administration to boost supplies.

Availability of powdered formula products in U.S. stores earlier this month dropped to the lowest level so far this year, with about 30% of products out of stock for the week ended July 3, according to the market-research firm IRI. While availability improved slightly last week, out-of-stock levels remain higher than in recent months, and shortages remain acute in states including Alaska, Utah and Wyoming, IRI data showed.

At the same time, consumers are finding fewer choices of brands, sizes or formats of formula on grocery-store shelves as the variety of available products shrinks. U.S. supermarkets over the four weeks ended June 26 sold an average of 11 different formula products per store weekly, according to IRI, compared with a weekly average of 24 from 2018 to 2021. wsj.com

1,500 Layoffs & 76 Closures
Gopuff laying off 10% of global workforce, closing dozens of US warehouses
Gopuff plans to lay off 10% of its global workforce and close dozens of dark stores as it grapples with a challenging market and leveling e-commerce demand.

In a July 12 memo to investors, founders and Co-Chief Executive Officers Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev said the company will reduce its workforce in order to "remove overhead and drive operational efficiencies." A Gopuff spokesperson said the company will be letting about 1,500 workers go.

This follows the company's announcement in early April that it would eliminate 3% of its positions globally from its workforce of roughly 15,000 workers.

In addition, Gopuff plans to consolidate its footprint by "closing and consolidating" 76 dark stores across the U.S., which the spokesperson said equates to about 12% of the company's footprint in the country. The company plans to expand delivery zones at high-performing warehouses in order to continue serving most of the customers in impacted markets. retaildive.com

High Store Prices: America's Top Issue
Inflation prices top COVID as America's No. 1 concern
Concerns about inflation and personal finances have surged while COVID has evaporated as a top issue for Americans, a new poll shows, marking an upheaval in priorities just months before critical midterm elections.

Forty percent of U.S. adults specifically name inflation in an open-ended question as one of up to five priorities for the government to work on in the next year, according to a June poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That's a sharp rise from 14% in December and less than 1% the year prior. In all, 77% mention the economy in any way, up from 68% in December. But just 10% specifically mention jobs or unemployment, as U.S. employers continue to hire despite high inflation and weak economic growth. usatoday.com

Where does Sonia Syngal's exit leave Gap?
With underperformance across its brands, many of the retailer's problems are self-inflicted. But others are a sign of broader trouble in apparel.

True Religion combines CFO, COO roles

Back-to-school spending to set record on pricier supplies

FTC Warns Businesses Over Illegal Data Collection
Location, health, and other sensitive information: FTC committed to fully enforcing the law against illegal use and sharing of highly sensitive data
Among the most sensitive categories of data collected by connected devices are a person's precise location and information about their health. Smartphones, connected cars, wearable fitness trackers, "smart home" products, and even the browser you're reading this on are capable of directly observing or deriving sensitive information about users. Standing alone, these data points may pose an incalculable risk to personal privacy. Now consider the unprecedented intrusion when these connected devices and technology companies collect that data, combine it, and sell or monetize it. This isn't the stuff of dystopian fiction. It's a question consumers are asking right now.

The Commission is committed to using the full scope of its legal authorities to protect consumers' privacy. We will vigorously enforce the law if we uncover illegal conduct that exploits Americans' location, health, or other sensitive data. The FTC's past enforcement actions provide a roadmap for firms seeking to comply with the law.

What should companies consider when thinking about the collection of confidential consumer information, including location and health data?

Sensitive data is protected by numerous federal and state laws. There are numerous state and federal laws that govern the collection, use, and sharing of sensitive consumer data, including many enforced by the Commission. The FTC has brought hundreds of cases to protect the security and privacy of consumers' personal information, some of which have included substantial civil penalties.

Claims that data is "anonymous" or "has been anonymized" are often deceptive. Companies may try to placate consumers' privacy concerns by claiming they anonymize or aggregate data. Firms making claims about anonymization should be on guard that these claims can be a deceptive trade practice and violate the FTC Act when untrue. Significant research has shown that "anonymized" data can often be re-identified, especially in the context of location data. One set of researchers demonstrated that, in some instances, it was possible to uniquely identify 95% of a dataset of 1.5 million individuals using four location points with timestamps. Companies that make false claims about anonymization can expect to hear from the FTC.

The FTC cracks down on companies that misuse consumers' data. As recent cases have shown, the FTC does not tolerate companies that over-collect, indefinitely retain, or misuse consumer data. Ad exchange OpenX recently paid $2 million for collecting children's location data without parental consent. The Commission also took action against Kurbo/Weight Watchers for, among other things, indefinitely retaining sensitive consumer data. The settlement requires the company to pay a $1.5 million fine for violating COPPA, delete all illegally collected data, and also delete any work product algorithms created using that data. Just a few weeks ago, the Commission entered a final order requiring CafePress to pay redress and minimize its data collection because, according to the Commission's complaint, it improperly collected and retained consumer data, and failed to respect consumers' deletion requests, among other things. ftc.gov

Surging Retail Cyberattacks
Retailers Prepare for Increased Cyber Attacks During Prime Day
Cyber security experts are warning of increased phishing, ransomware, and social engineering attacks during Amazon's Prime Day event this week, as more hackers take advantage of the event's popularity to send credential harvesting emails to unsuspecting consumers. With the frequency of these attacks on the rise, multi-location retailers are beefing up their own digital security protocols and using external marketing channels to distribute warnings to their customers.

"We always see a spike in the occurrence of these types of crimes around the same major shopping holidays - Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas," says Lisa Plaggemier, interim executive director of the National Cybersecurity Alliance. "As the lines between brick-and-mortar and e-commerce shopping have blurred over the last couple of years and most transactions happen online, bad actors have a larger pool of consumers to go after."

Retail and wholesale businesses saw a 400% increase in phishing attempts over the past year - the most of any industry, including financial and government sectors.

According to Check Point Research, there was a 37% jump in Amazon-related phishing attacks at the start of this month compared with the daily average for June. Additionally, almost 1,900 new domains using the term "Amazon" launched in June, and nearly one-in-10 of those domains were found by Check Point to be malicious or suspicious.

Phishing emails lure victims by posing as retailers or brands and distributing malicious links or attachments. Plaggemier says phishing attacks are the most prevalent type of cyber crime during Prime Day, with most of these attacks designed to deceive people into unknowingly giving up sensitive personal information.

Social engineering attacks work somewhat differently, in that they involve email campaigns designed to look as if they originated from a retailer's personnel, like a customer support team asking for "confirmation" of payment details. The links in these social engineering emails usually lead to a spoofed webpage designed to look like the retailer's own website, where the visitor is prompted to re-enter their credit card information.

Plaggemier suggests that multi-location retailers and brands become more vigilant about communicating the dangers and frequency of cyber attacks ahead of major online shopping holidays, and that they use marketing channels to distribute 'best practices' emails to their customers. streetfightmag.com

Breaking Down Cybersecurity Silos
How the Rise of 'Purple Teams' Can Impact Your Cybersecurity Career
Purple team engineers draw upon the experiences of both offensive and defensive cybersecurity operations to give an organization a more holistic view of the threats it faces and where security needs improvements to stop attackers.

"Blue teams and Red teams working together, often called a Purple team, to try to combine the best of both mindsets," said Mike Parkin, a senior technical engineer at security firm Vulcan Cyber. "Rather than working against each other competitively, they cooperate. The Red Team explains what they're doing, and the Blue Team shares where they did or didn't see the attack as it happened. Working together requires good communication skills and a willingness to cooperate and share knowledge."

This collaborative approach is growing popular with large organizations that can afford to have both Red and Blue team members on staff and can dedicate resources to help develop those Purple teamers who can bridge the gap. For instance, security firm CrowdStrike posted a blog post earlier this year detailing how its internal security team is now embracing this approach.

"We believe that red team/blue team exercises hold relatively little value unless both teams fully debrief all stakeholders after each engagement and offer a detailed report on all aspects of project activity, including test techniques, access points, vulnerabilities and other specific information that will help the organization adequately close gaps and strengthen their defenses," according to CrowdStrike.

Retail giant Walmart also detailed its Purple team approach at the 2019 RSA conference, with its internal security team detailing how the company first took this approach in 2016, and that it has taken several years of experimentation to get it right. insights.  dice.com

Robinhood Settles Class Action Lawsuit Over Data Breach
Robinhood Financial has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of negligence with regard to a 2020 data breach that may have exposed thousands of customers' sensitive personal and financial information to hackers.

Cleveland hotel warns of potential data breach
Hilton Garden Inn Cleveland Downtown - CC Breach Until 5/5/2022 - Right Before NRF Protect

Microsoft Issues Fixes for 84 Vulnerabilities: Here's What to Patch Now

The Pressure of Working for Amazon
Amazon issued 13,000 disciplinary notices at single U.S. warehouse
Amazon worker Gerald Bryson had hand-counted thousands of items in his warehouse's inventory over three days when his manager showed him a "Supportive Feedback Document."

Bryson had made 22 errors, the 2018 write-up said, including tallying 19 products in a storage bin that in fact had 20. If Bryson erred like this six times within a year, the notice stated, he would be fired from the Staten Island warehouse, one of Amazon.com Inc's largest in the United States.

Internal Amazon documents, previously unreported, reveal how routinely the company measured workers' performance in minute detail and admonished those who fell even slightly short of expectations - sometimes before their shift ended. In a single year ending April 2020, the company issued more than 13,000 so-called "disciplines" in Bryson's warehouse alone, one lawyer for Amazon said in court papers. The facility had about 5,300 employees around that time.

The records and interviews of current and former employees show the enormous pressure faced by Amazon line workers to complete tasks as accurately and quickly as the company demands - creating an environment that some workers told Reuters has fueled unionization efforts around the country. In March, Bryson's workplace voted to become Amazon's first organized warehouse in the United States, and staff from more than 100 other facilities nationwide are striving to follow suit, according to the Amazon Labor Union, an independent labor group formed in April 2021.

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the United States, disclosed these records in response to a complaint by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over Bryson's dismissal in April 2020. Many of these documents also were contained in a separate and ongoing federal court lawsuit in which the NLRB sought to stop what it called Amazon's "flagrant unfair labor practices" - actions the company denied in court papers. reuters.com

$1T+ in Online Retail Sales
FTI Consulting: U.S. online retail sales to top $1 trillion in 2022

U.S. e-commerce sales will pass an important milestone this year -thanks to the pandemic.

Online retail sales will reach $1.07 trillion in 2022, up 11.7% from last year, according to FTI Consulting's Retail & Consumer Products practice. That's some three years earlier than the group's pre-pandemic forecast, which predicted that online sales would exceed the $1 trillion mark in 2025. The pandemic caused approximately $400 billion to move to the e-commerce channel in 2020 and 2021, compared to FTI Consulting's pre-COVID forecast model

Online's share of U.S. retail sales (excluding auto and gas) will reach 22.1% in 2022, up from 20.8% in 2021 and 15.2% in 2019, according to the forecast. U.S. online retail sales will surpass $2 trillion by 2030, while total online market share will approach 31% by the end of the decade. This represents a compounded annual growth rate for online sales of nearly 8.5% over the rest of the decade. chainstoreage.com

iOS 16 to add virtual cards support in Safari for online shopping

Update: Trio Steals $111,000 in Jewelry From Zales at Queens Mall
Police are looking for two men and a woman who pulled off a six-figure heist in Queens. The theft happened around 7 p.m. on June 6 at a Zales jewelry store in the Queens Center Mall. Police said the two men removed a glass pane from a display case and snatched the goods, while the woman acted as a lookout. The trio got away with more than $111,000 worth of jewelry. Each of the three was captured on surveillance video, at the store and leaving the mall. An investigation is ongoing. nbcnewyork.com

South Union, Township, PA: PA State Police searching for suspects in $42,000 in jewelry theft
State police said they're searching for suspects after $42,200 worth of rings, bracelets, and necklaces were stolen at the Kay Jewelers on Walmart Drive in South Union Township, Fayette County. The incident happened a little after noon on July 8. Investigators said two women entered the store and an employee assisted them, showing multiple pieces of jewelry in a side-by-side display case. After they left the store, it was determined the jewelry was stolen. Police said surveillance video showed the suspects reaching into the cases and taking the merchandise by distracting the employee. wtae.com

Hot Springs, AR: Repeat shoplifter arrested again on felony theft charge
A local man with a history of shoplifting from Walmart was arrested again Sunday morning on a felony theft charge after allegedly stealing over $1,900 worth of DVDs from the store. Terry Jerrod Jones, 38, who lists a Hobson Avenue address, was taken into custody shortly before 8 a.m. at Walmart, 1601 Albert Pike Road, and charged with felony theft of property over $1,000. According to court records, he was convicted Oct. 10, 2021, of misdemeanor theft, reduced from a felony count, involving the theft of $1,669 worth of DVDs from Walmart, and sentenced to one year in jail, all suspended. He was previously convicted on July 12, 2019, of misdemeanor theft, reduced from a felony, for stealing $1,714 in DVDs from Walmart and sentenced to one year in jail. He was also previously convicted of breaking or entering on Aug. 28, 2012, and sentenced to five years in prison, but later paroled. hotsr.com

Fort Myers, FL: 2 people suspected of attempted theft from Home Depot
Fort Myers police are looking for two people suspected of attempted theft from the Home Depot located at The Forum on Thursday afternoon. Police say security cameras show the two unidentified people walked around the store's aisles, grabbing random items and placing them inside shopping carts. Eventually, the suspects left through the front entrance without paying for the stolen merchandise. Home Depot's Loss Prevention personnel confronted the suspects and recovered the stolen merchandise. The suspects left the scene in a gray Nissan Versa. The merchandise would have been a loss of around $1,246.  winknews.com

Franklin, TN: Academy Sports Security Officer Pepper-sprayed by Fleeing Felony Suspect
Detectives in Franklin are hoping someone might recognize a pair of aggressive, repeat theft and credit card fraud suspects. One of them pepper-sprayed store security during a getaway. Both incidents happened at Academy Sports in Cool Springs. In one of those cases, they left in a dark-colored Chevy Malibu. In the other, they fled in a silver Kia Optima with a TSU logo on the front of the vehicle. williamsonsource.com

Bellevue, WA: Property crime up 22%, police cracking down on 'hot spots'
Bellevue police are cracking down on crime by upping patrols in "hot spots" as part of the department's recent anti-crime initiative. Police said like many places Bellevue is seeing an uptick in property crime. The department launched a crime data map that shows where incidents are happening across the city which is updated every 48 hours. The majority of the crime is theft. "A lot of it is occurring at stores where people are shoplifting," said Capt. Darryl McKinney, with the Bellevue Police Department (BPD). Police said detectives work closely with store loss prevention like in a recent case where a Bellevue man was arrested and accused of stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise from Fred Meyer. Police said each hot spot will have its own plan. king5.com

Ponderay, ID: Woman arrested for $1300 Grand theft at Ponderay Walmart
A Kalispell woman is being charged with grand theft after she allegedly took more than 140 items totaling $1,390.91 from the Ponderay Walmart. Grace A.L. Smith, 28, is accused of grand theft.