It's 'Interface Week' on the D&D Daily! Check out today's 'Vendor Spotlight' from Interface Systems directly beneath the 'Top News' column to learn how WKS Restaurant Group is using Interface's virtual guard and video-verified alarm solutions to secure hundreds of restaurants.

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SAVE THE DATE: RILA's 2023 Retail AP Conference April 30 − May 3, 2023 | Denver, CO Asset protection professionals have always been important to retail's success, but the pandemic has made the role more central to retail operations than ever before-and it's never going back. ● Working together we helped keep the economy moving, making sure stores across the country could open and safely serve the public. ● Collaborating with operational peers we helped implement new technologies to make the stores safer and more efficient for customers. ● We trained associates to prepare for the unexpected, meeting every pandemic-related challenge as an opportunity to improve customer service and our workforce. ● And we're tackling the growing challenge of organized retail crime, partnering with our peers in government affairs to write smarter laws and collaborating with law enforcement to go on offense against the criminal enterprises targeting our stores.

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Summer 2022 Weekend Shooting Analysis
America's Crime & Violence Surge Continues

Big City Gun Violence Continues in the Homestretch of Summer  

1,453 Shootings - 439 Killed - 1,524 Injured in 15 Big Cities Past 12 Weekends
The D&D Daily's Big City Weekend Violence Study - Memorial Day to Labor Day

The Daily's study analyzes weekend shooting data in 15 major U.S. cities from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend 2022

Starting Memorial Day Weekend, the D&D Daily began compiling and analyzing data from 15 major U.S. cities to get a snapshot of summer gun violence.

This past weekend, from August 12th through August 14th, there were 113 shootings recorded in these same cities, resulting in 30 deaths and 123 injuries.

The chart below shows the totals for each of the past 12 weekends dating back to Memorial Day weekend.

The D&D Daily will continue to track this data throughout the summer to capture the weekend violence trend in our nation's big cities as warm weather typically brings about more crime and violence.

Click here to see the list of incidents per city and follow along each week this summer as this spreadsheet will be updated every Monday. docs.google.com

Read more coverage about America's crime and gun violence epidemic in the section below
 

Shoplifting & Shootings Surge as NYC Businesses Demand Bail Law Changes
'Enough is enough' - Bronx business leaders demand change in state bail laws
Faced with a surge in shoplifting crimes and shootings in the South Bronx, local business leaders and small business owners gathered outside the Police Athletic League on Longwood Avenue Tuesday - ahead of Mayor Eric Adams' community conversation on public safety - to call on the state Legislature to change the current bail reform laws.

The press conference came four days after a group of delinquents robbed Rocco's Jewelry in the Fordham Manor section of the Bronx, stealing more than $2 million worth of diamonds in a brazen smash and grab heist.

Business leaders and owners made it clear that they support the mayor's push for New York state to change its bail laws to address recent spikes in major crimes, which are up more than 35% citywide this year.

Clearly fed up with the rise in crime and the lax bail laws, Wilma Alonso, executive director of the Fordham Road Business Improvement District, said that it was "crazy to see how somebody can do something in 30 minutes." Alonso demanded that the state, governor and locally elected officials at the state level change the bail laws.

Alonso also shared that one Marshalls department store in the Bronx reported a profit loss of $4.2 million due to theft. "It [Marshalls] was empty. They took even the hangers out of the racks," Alonso said. "And that happened to Old Navy, Macy's, Burlington."

Mario DeGiorgio, born and raised in the Bronx and owner of Kid City Store and Youngland, returned to the store last September after five years of retirement. He said he was disgusted with what he saw and had to bring in private security because of the extent of shoplifting.

Frank Bagatta, owner of North End Wine and Liquor, said the city was going backward instead of forward and appealed for "law and order." Three years ago, the state Legislature passed bail reform ending the assessment of cash bail in most cases involving misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. bxtimes.com

Surging NYC Crime is Raising Fears about Returning to Work
A spate of horrific attacks in New York has people fearful of returning to work
After several horrific attacks in the city's subway system this year, workers are telling their employers they are afraid to come back to work. In two meetings this year, some of the city's most powerful CEOs confronted Mayor Eric Adams, demanding answers, according to Kathryn Wylde, the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, who arranged the meetings.

"The executives came out very strong, saying, 'We can't in conscience bring our people back to work, encourage them to ride the subways, unless we see tangible evidence that you are doing something about this,'" she recalls.

What the numbers show

Police statistics show that there have been fewer murders at this point than last year, when the country was emerging from the lockdowns that characterized much of 2020. Still, the number of murders is sharply higher than at the same time in 2019, before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the number of felony assaults is up year to date compared to both 2021 and 2019. And although New York City's crime numbers are still historically low, almost half of registered voters who responded to a recent Quinnipiac poll said crime is "the most urgent issue facing New York City today."

Wall Street executives are also worried

The killings of Go and Enriquez have also shaken Wall Street, because they both worked for big financial institutions. Financial firms have also been prominent in pushing workers to return to their offices.

New York City is not alone in dealing with public safety issues. Billionaire Ken Griffin recently decided to move Citadel's headquarters from Chicago to Miami, citing the city's longstanding problems with crime.

The worries about the city's future

When Wall Street executives talk about return-to-office plans, they often emphasize how important it is for young people to get back to the office so they don't miss out on mentoring and other career opportunities.

And executives like Wylde worry that New York City could lose some of its appeal to companies and workers if the worries about safety continue to take hold. npr.org

Theft Pushing Some Stores to the Brink of Closure
Rise in retail crime threatens businesses nationwide
Businesses across the country - from locally-owned shops to retail giants - are continuing to battle a wave of organized theft. In Seattle, police tell KOMO that they have responded to more than 2,700 calls for shoplifting so far this year. That's one call every two hours.

Theft has gotten so bad at one Seattle Trader Joe's that the popular grocer announced this week that it is no longer selling liquor at its Capitol Hill location. In nearby Bellevue, police just released surveillance video showing a shocking smash-and-grab at Louis Vuitton. The video shows several accused thieves ripping handbags off the shelves and running off.

One of the accused suspects, Billy G. Chambers, was convicted in the 2008 murder of a Seattle street performer, known as the "Tuba Man." According to the National Retail Federation, organized retail crime costs businesses $700,000 for every billion in sales.

In Baltimore, a cherished community grocery store almost closed its doors due to a rash of retail thefts. Staff at Eddie's Mount Vernon recently replaced multiple glass panels after thieves threw rocks through store windows. Back-to-back break-ins led to the permanent loss of the store's ATM.

The store owner posted a sign that they'd be closing after more than two decades but has since decided to remain open. katv.com

Mass Shootings Get the Attention - But Other Gun Crimes Cause More Deaths
US is trying to stop mass shootings. How about other gun crimes?
This summer, for the first time in three decades, Congress passed legislation aimed at reducing gun violence, after a spate of mass shootings shook the nation - including one at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and another at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen children getting killed inside their classroom is the "kind of cataclysm that moves people to action," Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a lead negotiator for the bill, told the Monitor.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act will provide funding for states to implement red flag laws, enhance screening processes for gun purchasers under the age of 21, and prevent those convicted of domestic abuse from owning a gun for a period of time, along with channeling billions of dollars into mental health and school safety.

Ms. Rice applauds the measure and hopes it will prevent more mass shootings like the one in Uvalde. But she doesn't believe it will have much impact on communities like hers and the gun violence that happens there "every single day."

Activists and experts cite a variety of measures they think would help address the problem, from community policing to gun licensing laws. But first, many say, there needs to be a broader acknowledgement of the prevalence of this type of gun violence - and the lower-income, majority Black neighborhoods that are most impacted by it. Mass shootings - which comprised 38 of the record 45,222 U.S. gun deaths recorded by the FBI in 2020 - receive an outsize proportion of public attention due to their shocking nature. To make communities like Hartford safer, they say, would require sustained attention to the other kind of violent crime that too often is ignored.

"I think America is taking mass shootings seriously, but I don't think they're taking community-level gun violence seriously," says Ms. Rice. "And that needs to change." csmonitor.com

San Francisco DA Race Heats Up
'I am not Chesa Boudin': John Hamasaki, firebrand former S.F. police commissioner, plans to run for D.A
John Hamasaki, a criminal defense attorney and a former San Francisco police commissioner is planning to run for district attorney in this fall's special election, positioning himself as an ideological foil to newly appointed District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. sfchronicle.com

Redmond Police continue partnerships with local businesses to deter shoplifting

Rise in retail crime causing Eddie's of Mount Vernon to consider closing

The Biometric Expansion Continues Across Retail & Other Industries
Biometrics reach more retailers, airports & health cards amid privacy conflicts
Amazon's retail biometrics are expanding, a new PAD system has been launched by Clearview, and opportunities for government contracts for health cards and airport biometrics continue a strong round of investment from the public sector.

Amazon One palm biometrics are coming to 65 more Whole Foods stores in California, including introductions in new cities and more locations in L.A. The automated biometric payment system has also already been rolled out in Washington State, Texas, and New York. The company's track record with personally identifying information will not inspire all shoppers with confidence, however, as the trove of data available through Amazon gift registries is revealed by The Intercept.

UK government departments are removing Hikvision cameras and cancelling contracts with the company. The backlash prompted by its alleged links to China's state security apparatus and its involvement in biometric surveillance systems used to repress ethnic minorities has reached the country's prime-time news reports. New Zealand may already be following suit.

ID.me is the latest technology provider to be targeted by a potential class action suit for alleged violations of Americas toughest biometric data privacy law in Illinois. The complaint involves an employee tracking system, but does not name the plaintiff's employer, in an unusual, though hardly unheard-of, twist on the most common species of BIPA case.

Clearview AI has launched a presentation attack detection feature for its identity verification and authentication developer tool Consent. The company's CEO and VP of Research joined Biometric Update for a demo and conversation about training liveness assurance systems, the ensemble-of-models approach, and how liveness detection is following trends seen elsewhere in AI.

Callsign VP North America Joe Micara writes in a Biometric Update guest post that behavioral biometrics could be the answer to Netflix' account-sharing challenge. The technology could replace measures that have caused customer service lines to fill up and lead to an eventual move away from passwords altogether. biometricupdate.com

How Major Retailers Prepare for Natural Disasters - Part 4: Lowe's
Lowe's Command Center Emerges Stronger After 2020's Challenges
Last year was the hardest of Jacinthe Galpin's 20-year career. As the director of Lowe's Emergency Command Center, she leads a team that prepares for and responds to disasters. And 2020 was filled with them.

Galpin's job involves addressing whatever crisis is happening right now, but she's always planning for the next crisis, too. Her team is devising snowstorm and ice storm strategies in July. They're planning for hurricane season, which starts in May, the previous December.

Preparedness is what this team is known for. And taking care of associates - as well as customers - is a priority.

In 2020, Lowe's launched disaster response trailers for associates. Four washer/dryer trailers and four shower trailers were deployed last year. The shower and washer/dryer trailers were deployed post-Hurricane Sally to Gulf Breeze, Florida. The washer/dryer and shower trailers are kept in Palmetto, Georgia, southwest of Atlanta. "Palmetto is what we call our 'nest,'" Galpin said. "We keep a lot of our staged inventory there."

Ready for duty

Lowe's already has pre-staged trucks geared for a number of natural disasters. They're ready to supply Lowe's stores with products impacted customers need in a hurry. It's merchandise that stores could easily run out of if these trucks weren't ready to go even before they're needed.

"Product is staged and ready to go," Galpin said. "All I need is wheels under it. That means that if somebody calls me and needs a flood truck, within a few hours, that flood truck is on the road, heading to a community in need."

Lowe's maintains in excess of 150 flood, wind, power and fire trucks, from Mount Vernon, Texas to Plainfield, Connecticut and from Moreno Valley, California to Kissimmee, Florida. In addition, hundreds of truckloads of water are strategically positioned around the country.

No matter where or when disaster strikes, Galpin and her team (and a fleet of trucks) are prepared. "When you need us, I can guarantee that this team will be firing on every single cylinder," she said. "And we won't stop until the job is done." corporate.lowes.com

   Read Part 3 about Home Depot's Disaster Preparedness & Response here

Layoffs & Store Closures
Peloton slashing 780 jobs, closing stores and hiking prices in push to turn profit

The company didn't specify how many of its 86 retail locations it plans to shutter.

Peloton told employees Friday that it is slashing roughly 780 jobs, closing a significant number of its retail stores and hiking prices on some equipment in a bid to cut costs and become profitable.

The company did not specify how many of its 86 retail locations it plans to shutter, but said an "aggressive" reduction will begin in 2023. The pace of closures will depend on how quickly Peloton can negotiate getting out of leases.

Peloton said it will exit last-mile logistics by closing its remaining warehouses and shift delivery work to third-party providers, resulting in a portion of the job cuts. It is also cutting a number of positions in its in-house support team, which are mainly located in Tempe, Arizona, and Plano, Texas, and instead will rely on third parties. cnbc.com

Hundreds of Best Buy Job Cuts
Best Buy Cuts Store Jobs to Help Boost Profits

Retailer is reworking the business as spending shifts online & electronics sales slow

Best Buy Co. is cutting store jobs across the country, as the electronics and appliance retailer works to lower costs in response to changing customer spending habits.

The retailer cut hundreds of jobs in stores over the past week, including some workers who do jobs such as helping people purchase or plan home-entertainment layouts, according to people familiar with the situation.

Best Buy had around 105,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada as of January, down from nearly 125,000 workers in early 2020, according to financial filings. wsj.com

Starbucks Challenges Union Effort Nationwide
Starbucks asks labor board to suspend mail-in ballot union elections, alleging misconduct in voting process
Starbucks is asking the federal labor board to suspend all mail-in ballot union elections nationwide, alleging misconduct in the voting process by the board's personnel and the union organizing its baristas.

The Seattle-based coffee giant wrote in a letter to the chairman and general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board on Monday that the labor board's officials acted inappropriately during an election in the Kansas City area and has likely acted similarly in other elections. Starbucks cited a career NLRB professional who approached the company as a whistleblower.

More than 220 Starbucks cafes in the U.S. have voted to unionize, according to an NLRB tally as of Friday. An additional 34 elections have been ordered or are in progress, and seven more stores are waiting to schedule elections.

NLRB spokeswoman Kayla Blado said in a statement to CNBC the agency has well-established processes for raising challenges regarding the handling of election matters and unfair labor practice cases. cnbc.com

CVS Is Closing Locations in California & D.C.

Consumer sentiment inches up as gasoline prices fall; inflation fears ease

Kroger applies to install sports gaming kiosks in some stores

J.C. Penney hires a new CFO


Last week's #1 article --

Regional AP Leader Arrested for Stabbing Murder
Arrest made in murder of 19-year-old woman from Ecuador found in woods
The Gwinnett County Police Department has arrested Timothy Krueger in connection with the murder of a 19-year-old Ecuadorian woman.

The Hall County Sheriff's Office discovered the body of Sarai Llanos Gomez decomposing in a wooded area off Paradise Point Road in Flowery Branch on June 20. They later identified the victim on July 25 and have been actively investigating her death as a homicide since.

Detectives obtained a concealing a death warrant for Krueger and Gwinnett homicide officials obtained search warrants for his home where he was taken into custody on Aug. 4. Authorities said he ultimately provided a full confession.

The 49-year-old confessed to stabbing Gomez several times with a knife which ultimately led to her death, according to an arrest warrant. The murder occurred at a home along Cardinal Lake Drive in Duluth, records show. He was later taken to the Gwinnett County Jail and charged with felony murder and aggravated assault.

According to LinkedIn, Krueger has been in the loss prevention industry for 20+ years, most recently as Regional Asset Protection Leader for Ascena Retail Group. Throughout his career, he has held roles with Justice, Michaels, and Musicland. 11alive.com gwinnettdailypost.com

$350M T-Mobile Breach Settlement
T-Mobile Will Pay $350 Million to Settle Data Breach Lawsuit

The mobile carrier's payout stems from a 2021 data breach that affected almost 80 million customers.

Americans who were customers of T-Mobile in August 2021 could be owed money in a huge legal settlement from the mobile carrier. T-Mobile has agreed pay $350 million to settle a class-action lawsuit related to a massive data breach that exposed millions of users' personal information.

The settlement also stipulates that T-Mobile invest $150 million in improving data security.

If given final approval, the deal will be the second-largest data breach settlement in US history, following Equifax's $700 million payout in 2019. T-Mobile hasn't acknowledged any wrongdoing, but in a July 22 statement shared with CNET, the wireless carrier said it was "pleased to have resolved this consumer class action filing."

"Customers are first in everything we do and protecting their information is a top priority," T-Mobile added. "Like every company, we are not immune to these criminal attacks." cnet.com

VP of Microsoft's Security Response Center Defends Policies
Microsoft: We Don't Want to Zero-Day Our Customers

The head of Microsoft's Security Response Center defends keeping its initial vulnerability disclosures sparse - it is, she says, to protect customers.

A top Microsoft security executive today defended the company's vulnerability disclosure policies as providing enough information for security teams to make informed patching decisions without putting them at risk of attack from threat actors looking to quickly reverse-engineer patches for exploitation.

In a conversation with Dark Reading at Black Hat USA, the corporate vice president of Microsoft's Security Response Center, Aanchal Gupta, said the company has consciously decided to limit the information it provides initially with its CVEs to protect users. While Microsoft CVEs provide information on the severity of the bug, and the likelihood of it being exploited (and whether it is being actively exploited), the company will be judicious about how it releases vulnerability exploit information.

For most vulnerabilities, Microsoft's current approach is to give a 30-day window from patch disclosure before it fills in the CVE with more details about the vulnerability and its exploitability, Gupta says. The goal is to give security administrations enough time to apply the patch without jeopardizing them, she says. "If, in our CVE, we provided all the details of how vulnerabilities can be exploited, we will be zero-daying our customers," Gupta says.

Sparse Vulnerability Information?

Microsoft - as other major software vendors - has faced criticism from security researchers for the relatively sparse information the company releases with its vulnerability disclosures. Since Nov. 2020, Microsoft has been using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) framework to describe vulnerabilities in its security update guide. The descriptions cover attributes such as attack vector, attack complexity, and the kind of privileges an attacker might have. The updates also provide a score to convey severity ranking.

However, some have described the updates as cryptic and lacking critical information on the components being exploited or how they might be exploited. They have noted that Microsoft's current practice of putting vulnerabilities into an "Exploitation More Likely" or an "Exploitation Less Likely" bucket does not provide enough information to make risk-based prioritization decisions. darkreading.com

Standalone Federal Cyber Agency?
Ex-CISA chief Krebs advocates for standalone cyber agency
Chris Krebs, former head of the nation's cybersecurity agency inside the Department of Homeland Security, caused a stir this week when he suggested the agency break out on its own.

Instead of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency residing in DHS, Krebs told an audience at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, a standalone CISA could help streamline how the private sector and other stakeholders work with the government to combat cyberthreats.

"Instead of going to five or six different agencies, make the front door clearly visible - and as I see it that's CISA," Krebs said.

But former CISA officials and other cybersecurity experts said that idea is simply unrealistic and impractical. CyberScoop spoke with eight former U.S. cybersecurity officials, executives and experts about Krebs' comments and a majority said that CISA needs to reside inside DHS in order to accomplish its mission.

"DHS gives CISA size and Cabinet-level seniority in the interagency," Looking Glass CEO Bryan Ware, who previously served in senior cybersecurity roles at CISA and DHS, told CyberScoop. "I worry that without that top cover [CISA] could be diminished by DOD, FBI and others."

CISA is unlikely to succeed in its mission if it stands on its own. Stifel said that Krebs' idea merits consideration but that because of the need for private sector engagement to inform and potentially drive requirements within the executive branch, turning CISA into an agency whose "capability is only advisory" would likely undercut its work.

Being housed inside DHS is not ideal for CISA, said former CISA Director Suzanne Spaulding. But she said it is worth tolerating the headaches DHS oversight brings in exchange for the department's muscle. cyberscoop.com

Worldwide Ransomware Surge
Ransomware is not going anywhere: Attacks are up 24%
Avast released a report revealing a significant increase in global ransomware attacks, up 24% from Q1/2022. Researchers also uncovered a new zero-day exploit in Chrome, as well as signals how cybercriminals are preparing to move away from macros as an infection vector.

Ransomware attacks increase

After months of decline, global ransomware attacks increased significantly in Q2/2022, up 24% from the previous quarter. The highest quarter-on-quarter increases in ransomware risk ratio occurred in Argentina (+56%), UK (+55%), Brazil (+50%), France (+42%), and India (+37%).

"Consumers, but especially businesses should be on guard and prepared for encounters with ransomware, as the threat is not going anywhere anytime soon," explains Jakub Kroustek, Avast Malware Research Director.

"The decline in ransomware attacks we observed in Q4/2021 and Q1/2022 were thanks to law enforcement agencies busting ransomware group members, and caused by the war in Ukraine, which also led to disagreements within the Conti ransomware group, halting their operations. Things dramatically changed in Q2/2022. Conti members have now branched off to create new ransomware groups, like Black Basta and Karakurt, or may join other existing groups, like Hive, BlackCat, or Quantum, causing an uptick in activity."

Macros blocked by default

Microsoft is now blocking VBA macros by default in Office applications. Macros have been a popular infection vector for decades. They were used by threats described in the Q2/2022 Threat Report, including remote access trojans like Nerbian RAT, a new RAT written in Go that emerged in Q2/2022, and by the Confucius APT group to drop further malware onto victims' computers.

"While cybercriminals will surely continue to find other ways of getting their malware onto people's computers, we are hopeful that Microsoft's decision will help make the internet a safer place." helpnetsecurity.com

Cisco has been hacked by a ransomware gang
According to Cisco's Talos threat intelligence team, the breach resulted in the exfiltraton of inconsequential data and the booting of the attackers from Cisco's systems and corporate network. They repeatedly try to get back in, the analysts said, but despite using various advanced techniques weren't able to repeat their initial feat.

Black Hat USA 2022 video walkthrough

Your Business is Safe with these Top Cybersecurity Companies

Amazon Facing More OSHA Investigations
OSHA opens second Amazon probe following 2 more worker deaths in NJ
Federal work-safety investigators are looking into the death of an Amazon worker and an injury that potentially led to the death of another employee, adding to a probe already underway following a fatality during the company's annual Prime Day shopping event in mid-July.

All three Amazon workers died within the past month and were employed at company facilities in New Jersey.

The new Occupational Health and Safety Administration investigations are putting fresh scrutiny on Amazon's injury rates and workplace safety procedures, which labor and safety advocates have long criticized as inadequate.

Department of Labor spokesperson Denisha Braxton confirmed Thursday that the most recent fatality took place last week at an Amazon facility in Monroe Township, about 20 miles northeast of Trenton. The second probe is looking into a July 24 accident at an Amazon facility in Robbinsville. The worker involved in that accident died three days later, according to Braxton.

In a statement, Robbinsville Police Chief Michael Polaski said police responded to the warehouse, called PNE5, on July 24 after receiving a report that a worker fell from a three-foot ladder and struck his head.

Polaski said the worker was conscious and alert when police arrived. But police were told CPR was conducted on the person by other workers prior to their arrival, he said. The person was transported to a hospital and OSHA was notified of the incident on the same day, he added.

OSHA officials declined to provide additional information about any of the deaths, citing the open investigations. The agency has up to six month to complete each probe. Sam Stephenson, a spokesperson for Seattle-based Amazon, said in a statement the company was "deeply saddened by the passing of our colleagues and offer our condolences to their family and friends."

"Our investigations are ongoing and we're cooperating with OSHA, which is conducting its own reviews of the events, as it often does in these situations," Stephenson said. cbsnews.com

Fighting Online Counterfeits Amid Back to School Shopping Season
Business and Law Enforcement Team Up to Protect Students, Parents, and Teachers from Counterfeit Goods
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are joining forces to educate students, parents, and teachers about the dangers of counterfeit goods and how to spot them, just in time as kids prepare to go back to school.

This joint effort highlights the impacts counterfeit goods have on the economy as well as the health and safety of consumers and includes ten tips to "Shop Smart" for back-to-school basics.

As millions of American students return to the classroom, August is a busy time for parents and educators to stock up on everything they need for a successful school year. Unfortunately, it is also a busy time for scammers looking to cash in by selling fake and potentially dangerous counterfeit goods to unsuspecting consumers. As of August 2022, CBP has made almost 17,000 seizures of counterfeit goods worth an estimated $2.4 billion, had the goods been genuine. Seizures of these fake goods included consumer electronics, footwear, and wearing apparel to name a few.

"CBP works closely with our industry partners to alert shoppers to the dangers associated with the purchase of counterfeit goods and how to be a conscientious consumer," said Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner for CBP's Office of Trade, John Leonard. "While the lure of a great deal is tempting, the consequences simply aren't worth the risk. Only shop from sources you trust, especially when shopping online."

Buying a substandard, fake good may save money in the short term, but when it breaks down quickly or becomes a safety hazard, costs to replace the product could increase substantially. Counterfeiters lure customers with convincing advertisements and low prices, but shoddy or potentially harmful products and materials are not worth the risk. Fake backpacks, pencils, and electronics threaten students' safety and cost parents more money over time. cbp.gov

Shopping online amid inflation crunch? Here are 6 tips to avoid scams

Beverly Hills, CA: Police hunt for thieves who crashed car into Neiman Marcus
Authorities Sunday continued their search for the thieves who crashed a black sedan through the front of the Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus store, getting away in another vehicle before police arrived. The vehicular smash-and-grab burglary occurred at about 4:45 a.m. Saturday at 9700 Wilshire Blvd., according to Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark Stainbrook. Video from the scene showed the black sedan still inside the store. Officers responded within three minutes of when the store's alarm sounded, Stainbrook said. The suspects had already fled in a getaway vehicle. "Due to our robust technology and the evidence left at scene, I am confident we will make arrests in this case," the chief said in a message on social media. "Crime of any kind will not be tolerated in Beverly Hills," Stainbrook added. foxla.com

New York, NY: Thieves Steal Over $16,000 Worth of Merch From Lululemon
The Lululemon Athletica at 216 Columbus Ave (corner of West 70th Street) was robbed twice on Saturday. No weapons were used in either heist and nobody was harmed, according to an NYPD spokesperson. The first burglary took place at roughly 10:04 a.m. on Saturday, minutes after the store opened. We're told two males came in and lifted $6,600 worth of merchandise before taking off. Both suspects are still at large. The second incident took place at about 4:45 p.m. This time it was four individuals: two males, one female and one unidentified person marched in carrying laundry bags and filled their sacks with an estimated $9,700 worth of Lululemon gear. Suspects from both robberies are still at large. ilovetheupperwestside.com

Fort Myers, FL: Trio arrested in attempted theft from Home Depot
Three people were arrested after deputies say they attempted to steal from a Home Depot. Luis Lemon, 23, and Jose Rosario, 33, face charges of grand theft. Lemus was also booked on a warrant from Monroe County. Cecilia Castro, 25, was in the van and also arrested on a warrant from Osceola County. The Lee County Sheriff's Office did not disclose what the warrants were for. The Lee County Sheriff's Office said it happened at Home Depot at 14655 South Tamiami Trail in south Fort Myers. Two men were seen walking out of the store with large boxes and tools, the sheriff's office said, adding that they fled the parking lot in a U-haul van and were immediately stopped by deputies. Home Depot loss prevention was able to positively identify their merchandise, which included an A/C unit, laser kits, and patio furniture, the sheriff's office said. winknews.com

Atlanta, GA: Gang of female shoplifters stole thousands of dollars worth of men's Nike boxer shorts from Kohl's stores
Police say three women stole about $1,800 worth of men's underwear from a Kohl's store in Newnan, Georgia.Kohl's says they stole Nike men's boxer shorts, which cost between $26 and $40, per Fox 5 Atlanta. More than $6,000 worth of high-end men's underwear has been stolen from Kohl's stores in the area, say police. yahoo.com

Athens-Clarke County, GA: Police ID suspects in shoplifting spree that netted thousands at Target store in Athens
A 37-year-old man currently in the Athens-Clarke County Jail has been identified by police as the shoplifter who stole thousands of dollars worth of merchandise earlier this year at the Target store on Atlanta Highway. Athens-Clarke police Det. Nathaniel Franco said he has secured felony shoplifting warrants against the man and his girlfriend, as the pair worked as a team on some occasions. The suspect was charged with nine felony counts of shoplifting on Thursday. The man's 28-year-old girlfriend has not yet been arrested. onlineathens.com

North Olmsted, OH: Police stop a car containing $2,058 of suspected stolen JC Penney merchandise

Summit Township, PA: PA State Police investigating $600 retail theft at Kohl's