Retailer's fast action leads to armed robber arrest, prosecution

How proactive face matching makes your stores safer

The warning’s crystal clear when FaceFirst sends a real-time notification: “Do not approach—call 9-1-1.” It’s critical information when someone with a history of violence or threats against your store has returned.

Here’s a win from a FaceFirst client that led to an armed robber’s arrest and prosecution. It started when a masked man entered a store, approached the in-store coffee shop employee, and robbed her at gunpoint. After the man left, the AP team ran a FaceFirst visitor search for all their stores. They found an image of the man without a mask. He was wearing the same distinctive shoes and a unique shirt, which helped them confirm the match.

The investigators enrolled the man as a known offender in the retailer’s database. A week later, the man entered a different location. FaceFirst sent an immediate notification: “Do not approach—call 9-1-1.” Officers responded quickly. They arrested the man as he left the store, having committed another armed robbery. The man faces charges of felony armed robbery with a deadly weapon.

The proactive match notifications help ensure prompt law enforcement response when seconds count. FaceFirst gives retailers tools to investigate incidents more effectively and efficiently, which helps prosecutors keep dangerous individuals out of your stores and off the streets.

FaceFirst’s face matching technology alerts retailers instantly when known threats enter their stores, providing both life safety and loss prevention advantages. Calculate the risks of being caught unaware when a known offender enters your store. If you knew there was a proven solution to keep your valued customers and employees safer from violent offenders and prevent loss, would you implement it? The real risk is answering no.

FaceFirst’s solution is fast, accurate, and scalable—take action today at facefirst.com.
 

Retail CEOs Sound the Alarm Over Theft
Video: Retail executives address string of retail thefts in earnings calls
Retail crime is on the rise. Target and Home Depot are among the names struggling with a big jump that we've seen in organized theft. And just a few days ago, a Nordstrom store in Los Angeles was the target of a smash-and-grab robbery. And according to the LAPD, more than $300,000 worth of merchandise was stolen within minutes.

Retail theft, shrinkage, smash and grab robberies — the different names of the phenomenon overtaking big-box retail stores. Retailers like Home Depot and Nordstrom are falling victim to a wave of retail thefts that are making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single day. Target previously forecasted expected losses of $500 million of merchandise through cases of retail shrinkage. Yahoo Finance Reporter Brooke DiPalma details how retail executives and experts are addressing the economic and community impacts of these crimes as part of the weekly series "Retail Evolution: The New Era." finance.yahoo.com


California Retailers Association Pushes For Statewide Vote to Fix Prop 47
Previous efforts have failed, but voters appear open to changes as theft surges

Memo on California's Proposed Ballot Initiative to Address retail Theft
There is a proposed California ballot initiative to amend Proposition 47 (passed by voters in November 2014) to increase penalties and accountability measures to curb the rampant “smash and grab” retail theft.

Background of Proposition 47

The measure was initially co-authored by then-San Francisco — now Los Angeles — progressive Dist. Atty. George Gascón. Proposition 47 was approved by a landslide vote of roughly 60% to 40%. It made retail theft of items totaling less than $950 a misdemeanor and allowed that only felons can be sent to state prison. It also eliminated the felony sentence enhancement for serial thieves.

Since a felony is no longer on the table and the county jails are overcrowded, a person convicted of stealing has no incentive to accept drug treatment because they won’t serve any or very little time in county jail. Over the past decade, many reports and media stories have linked Prop 47 as one of the contributing factors to the increase in crime and specifically retail theft.

Efforts to Amend Proposition 47

There have been many efforts in the Legislature to amend Proposition 47, but due to the supermajority of Democrats in both the State Assembly and State Senate, it has not mustered enough votes to pass.

There was also Proposition 20 in 2020 that was rejected by voters. However, the initiative was broad, as it also attempted to amend Governor Brown-backed initiative Proposition 57. It was placed on the ballot just as the Black Lives Matter movement was drawing new attention to demands for change in the criminal justice system. The measure would have increased penalties for repeat shoplifters and members of organized theft rings.

Proposed Ballot Initiative for the 2024 Ballot

A group of district attorneys and deputy district attorneys have come together and drafted a narrowly focused ballot measure that would amend Proposition 47 by statewide initiative to make serial retail thieves subject to felony prosecution and reintroduce the incentive for eligible thieves to agree to drug treatment.

The key for retailers is that the district attorneys drafted this measure focused on what they believe they need for enforcement. Enforcement is one of the essential missing ingredients in the fight to curb retail theft right now. The DAs have crafted this on what they believe will make the difference.

An internal poll testing the ballot measure language found that 81% of voters supported the changes to Prop 47 with 66% as a strong support. files.constantcontact.com

   Read the full background memo on the issue HERE.

   Read the updated initiative language HERE.

   Access slides providing additional context HERE.


California's Task Force: National Model for Fighting ORC?
Data-sharing in action: Close collaboration is a proven model for investigative effectiveness against retail crime

A statewide task force initiated by the California Highway Patrol has assembled cross-jurisdictional teams in areas most impacted by retail crime

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES TO A COORDINATED RESPONSE

With over 400 full-time criminal investigators, the CHP had the resources to address the investigative workload, but the challenge was how to enlist allied partners to embrace the task force resource as a means of working together to effectively battle organized retail crime.

OPEN COMMUNICATION IS KEY

As law enforcement professionals we all know that communication is key; in fact, it is a tenet of nearly all forms of evaluation ranging from that of individual employees to public opinion reviews. Unfortunately, law enforcement is plagued with a complex subculture when it comes to open communication that can be chalked up to disagreements, misunderstandings, directives, egos, or the ever-present standard of “that’s just the way it is.”

PROACTIVE CAMPAIGN TO BUILD CONNECTIONS

To address this concern, the CHP initiated a proactive campaign to connect with key representatives from allied agencies whose geographical responsibilities were adversely impacted by the sudden spike in organized retail crime. In addition, the CHP stepped outside of traditional law enforcement lanes and began working closely with retailers and retail crime associations to establish new means of best practices while redefining industry standards. This was unique in that law enforcement rarely if ever, relies directly on the private sector as a means of essential force multiplication.

STRATEGIES TO MITIGATE, THEN ELIMINATE RETAIL CRIME

Ultimately, it became widely accepted that the most effective approach to combatting organized retail crime is to use a three-pronged approach consisting of law enforcement, retailers and effective prosecution. Within these three prongs are supporting elements, such as retail crime associations like California Organized Retail Crime Association (Cal ORCA) and industry advocacies like the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Law enforcement has turned to technology for solutions in managing data repositories (stolen/suspicious property indexes), enhanced criminal databases, electronic surveillance capabilities, and most recently artificial intelligence offering features such as facial recognition.

UNFORTUNATELY, CRIME DOES PAY - CONCLUSION: police1.com


LA Forms New ORC Task Force
Los Angeles now has its own task force to combat retail thefts
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass along with local law enforcement officials on Thursday announced the formation of a new task force to crack down on retail thefts amid a recent spate of smash-and-grab robberies across the Los Angeles area. During a press conference, local leaders revealed the task force went into effect Wednesday night.

The task force includes 22 assigned full-time investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Glendale Police Department Burbank Police Department, Beverly Hills Police Department, Santa Monica Police Department, and California Highway Patrol, as well as federal partners.

There will also be prosecutors embedded into this task force from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, LA City Attorney's Office, and the California Attorney General's Office.  The task force will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and will respond to all incidents and follow up on leads with a full scope of investigative resources, officials said.

It is currently based in the San Fernando Valley, where authorities said the majority of crimes have taken place, in addition to the west region of Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, CHP officials said Gov. Gavin Newsom had allocated more funds to the agency to establish retail theft task forces across California. foxla.com


Fighting ORC & Shrink with Data Analytics
Appraisal Firms Can Help Retailers Fight 'The Growth of Shrink'

Data analytics and old-fashioned sleuthing can reduce losses from shoplifting, vendor fraud, supply-chain theft and the like, advises Tiger Group's William J. 'Bill' Mayer

Appraisal firms should play a bigger role in retailers' fight against the growing problem of shrink, advises a veteran Tiger Group executive.

In an Aug. 1 opinion piece for ABL Advisor (ABL Sector Must Stay Vigilant Amid 'Growth of Shrink'), Executive Managing Director William J. "Bill" Mayer notes that shoplifting, organized retail crime, employee theft and other forms of shrink are eating into the profits of American retailers.

In addition to shoplifting and employee theft, sources of shrink can include everything from innocent cashier mistakes, to misplaced merchandise, accidental product damage and vendor fraud.

But appraisers with the right analytics and field examination capabilities can ferret out disparities between the inventory subledger and the physical count of goods, Mayer asserts. The ABL executive, who is active in Tiger's valuation, disposition and finance practices, has generated billions of dollars in growth over the course of his 30-year career.

Many smaller and mid-sized retail chains, he observes, are hamstrung by a lack of transparency into their inventory, running physical counts on an annual basis only. "They are often unable to compare the number of in-possession sweaters, say, with the totals on the books," the executive explains. "This can lead to large book-to-physical (aka shrink) adjustments at year end."

Appraisers need to determine whether the smaller or midsized retailer has fallen behind on its regularly scheduled counts of physical goods within individual stores and distribution centers. "How frequently does the company conduct chainwide physical counts of inventory?" Mayer asks. "How accurate are the retailer's assessments of shrink likely to be given its overall operational efficiency (or lack thereof) and approach to inventory data and systems?"

Increasingly, thieves are targeting warehouses and distribution centers, along with the trucks and trains that transport goods. "Appraisal firms need to understand what's happening with shrink throughout the borrower's supply chain," Mayer cautions, "starting when the goods have been received from the manufacturer." finance.yahoo.com


NYC Businesses Wage War Against Repeat Theft Offenders
Op-Ed: Wage war on shoplifting
At last, our resourceful city and borough police and prosecutors appear to have found an end run around the awful laws enacted by Albany that have helped turn our stores into some kind of cross between “Mad Max” and “Supermarket Sweep.”

This page could rant for the hundredth time about the insane bail “reforms” of 2019 that set the stage for our recent crime spike, but we’d much rather give credit this week to the Police Department and District Attorney Melinda Katz for the Merchants Business Improvement Program. Perhaps you can tell it’s a program of substance because it’s got such a lame acronym. It’s hard to say “Em-bip” with swagger.

It’s also hard to have swagger if you’re one of the repeat shoplifters who gets caught up in MBIP. Under the program, which started small and is now going boroughwide, individual merchants can sign up to get trespass notices issued against repeat offenders. That means they are subject to arrest if they even just walk back into a store they’ve hit before. As Deputy Inspector John Portalatin, commander of the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst, said, the key is the greater potential punishment that comes with that. Both merchants and the public approve.

By now it seems we’ve all seen some miscreant load up a duffle bag or more and just walk out of a store. We’ve had enough. It’s time to say the heck with Albany and lock ’em up. We’re down with MBIP. qchron.com


CA's Gun-Homicide Rate 33% Below Rest of America
California report credits gun laws for drop in killings; rates differ sharply across Bay Area counties
Firearm deaths have fallen sharply in California over the last 30 years compared with the rest of the country, a new state Department of Justice study has found, but rates vary dramatically across counties in the Bay Area and throughout the state.

The Golden State had the third-highest firearm-homicide rate in the country 30 years ago, 50% above the national average, but now has a rate 33% below the rest of the country, according to the first report of DOJ’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, released Tuesday.

“While California is not immune to this disease, thanks to our nation-leading, commonsense gun laws and prevention policies, we’ve made substantial progress,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta in the report by the office he established in September. mercurynews.com


D.C. officials say they will enforce youth curfew in certain areas
D.C. officials announced Thursday they will enforce the city’s juvenile curfew law in particular areas where crime is concentrated or where disruptive youths are known to hang out.

Organized retail crime: Everything consumers need to know

Retail crime will get worse, says a former NYPD detective

Why San Francisco's Doom Loop tour is sold out (and may be coming to NYC)

Survivors of Buffalo shooting file lawsuits against shooter’s parents, gun companies and social media companies

10% of Retail Returns Are Fraudulent
Expert Viewpoints: How to stop return fraud
To mitigate return fraud and abuse, retailers must develop a stronger understanding of the many ways that bad actors commit fraud at the point-of-return.

Common types of return fraud

Return fraud can take a variety of forms from shoplifted returns and returns with counterfeit receipts to false order claims, wardrobing and organized retail crime. And return abuse can come in the form of “bracketing,” when someone buys multiple sizes to try the items on at home, or when they return an item that can no longer be resold.

With so many opportunities to fall victim to return fraud and abuse, it’s important that retailers know how to effectively mitigate even the rarest scenarios.

The negative impact of restrictive return policies

Today, many retailers combat return fraud and abuse by instituting restrictive policies that aim to catch all fraudulent activities. This can include requiring receipts, shortening return windows, or issuing a maximum number of returns per customer.  These approaches ostracize loyal customers who do not frequently misuse returns by limiting the retailer’s chance to make amends for a poor shopping experience.

Restrictive policies risk profit losses, negative reputations and a decrease in customer loyalty and satisfaction. Luckily, retailers can rely on artificial intelligence to understand the unique needs of each customer at the point of return and provide dynamic policies and targeted incentives to combat return fraud and abuse effectively while protecting long-term customer loyalty.

The best way to deter return fraud

Regardless of how and where the fraud occurs, retailers can leverage AI and data analytics to detect returns anomalies and suspicious activity that may indicate fraud. Then, once the bad actors have been identified, the AI can recommend a resolution that protects the retailer from unnecessary loss.

This individualized approach to return fraud and abuse prevention protects loyal shoppers from restrictive policies. It also provides opportunities to personalize the returns experience in a positive way by automatically granting loyal shoppers longer returns windows or coupons for their next purchase. chainstoreage.com


87% of Police Officers Work in Departments Not Fully Staffed
Lexipol survey uncovers alarming staffing shortages and stress levels reported by first responders
DALLAS - First responders are facing significant staffing and mental health challenges that pose a serious threat to their wellbeing and the communities they serve, according to Lexipol’s new Stressed & Short-Staffed: Challenges Facing First Responders and the Impact on Community Safety report. The findings, which come from Lexipol Media Group’s annual “What Cops/Firefighters/Paramedics Want” surveys of 9,400 first responders, expose the degree to which a large number of first responders today are under heightened stress.

First responders are facing severe staffing shortages, leading to recruitment and retention challenges that directly impact their ability to serve communities effectively. The survey found staffing challenges are increasing the stress levels and affecting the wellbeing of first responders, who must deal with an increased workload, more overtime shifts, and denied time off requests. One alarming finding: 87% of police officers work in departments that are not fully staffed based on authorized staffing numbers.  police1.com

Click here to read the report


Safeguarding Companies Against Misconduct
5 Steps CFOs Should Take to Mitigate Workplace Misconduct

Fostering a culture of respect and hiring the right people helps safeguard companies against misconduct — and ultimately protects their bottom line.

For the first time, a court ruling in Delaware acknowledged that C-suite executives can be held personally liable and have a fiduciary responsibility to address workplace misconduct. The suit, brought by McDonald’s shareholders against a former executive, reinforces the role and responsibility of the C-suite in addressing workplace misconduct or escalating the issue to the board or CEO.

Just as in the 1996 Caremark decision that mandated board oversight accountability, executives, too, can now be held personally liable for misconduct at the company.

The CFO’s role now encompasses additional risk mitigation and the heightened responsibility to emphasize what personal responsibility can cost the company — both for the bottom line and the company’s image.

Avoiding bad hires who engage in misconduct can help companies avoid costly lawsuits — and stock market declines for publicly traded companies — and ensure employees are the best representatives of your company and its values. Given this context, here are five actionable steps CFOs can take to fortify their organizations, safeguard against misconduct, and ultimately protect their bottom line. cfo.com


7 States Seek to Block Kroger, Albertsons Merger
Secretaries of states want FTC to block Kroger, Albertsons merger

Group says the deal would allow the two grocers to control large share of food retail market

The proposed $24.6 billion Kroger, Albertsons merger is facing another blockade, this one from a group of state officials, reports Reuters.

The secretaries of states from Colorado, Arizona, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont wrote Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan asking the agency to stop the merger. The group said the deal would allow Kroger and Albertsons to control a quarter of the U.S. food retail market.

"We are strongly opposed to this merger and urge you to stop this corporate consolidation that is draining Americans of their hard-earned wages and livelihoods," the letter said. A Kroger spokesperson said the merger would be beneficial for both store employees and consumers, and that if it is blocked only Walmart and Amazon would benefit. supermarketnews.com


Ranking OSHA Complaints by State
Pa. tops states with most OSHA complaints against Amazon, FedEx, UPS
A recent report has determined the amount of OSHA-reported injuries in each state, specifically at Amazon, FedEx, and UPS locations. And Pennsylvania was among the top three states with the most such complaints in the country.

The resulting study revealed how Pennsylvania had the third most OSHA complaints regarding both Amazon and UPS, and second most with regards to FedEx.

As for what injuries occurred, No. 1 was “exposure to environmental heat” followed by falls; getting hit by or against something; compressed or pinched by shifting items; and animal bites. The No. 1 state with the most complaints across the board was Texas. pennlive.com


Public Service Announcement – Is Your Team Vaccinated?
New vaccines this fall could curb covid variant, respiratory viruses
Health officials are unveiling a new arsenal of vaccines to protect vulnerable Americans and exhausted health-care workers from an expected wave of covid, flu and RSV as the fall respiratory virus season begins.

An updated covid booster should be available by late September. Flu shots are arriving at doctors’ offices. And for the first time, infants and seniors could be immunized against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a persistent foe that public health officials had few ways to prevent. washingtonpost.com


(Update) Judge adds $2.7M to jury award in Starbucks race discrimination case
The White plaintiff, a former regional director, alleged her race played a role in her firing after the company sought to mitigate damage following a 2018 racial profiling incident.

Shop Rite rolls out inventory robots to more stores

Will Retail End Up Paying for UPS Drivers’ Fatter Salaries?

Here’s how Hurricane Hilary could begin to impact the Bay Area this weekend

Account Hacks Surging on LinkedIn
LinkedIn Suffers 'Significant' Wave of Account Hacks

Users report losing access to their accounts, with some being pressured into paying a ransom to get back in or else face permanent account deletion.

Hackers are on a spree of hijacking LinkedIn accounts, in some cases monetizing the attacks by demanding a small ransom from users to regain access and threatening permanent deletion.

Though LinkedIn, a subsidiary of Microsoft, has not yet commented publicly about the campaign, it has affected people worldwide over the last few weeks. Conversations on social media and Google searches indicate a "significant surge in the past 90 days" of account hacks on the professional-oriented social media platform, according to a recent report published by Cyberint.

LinkedIn support response time for users has lengthened under the high volume of support requests, indicating that something is amiss, Coral Tayar, a security researcher at Cyberint, wrote in the report.

"[Google] search queries such as 'LinkedIn account hacked' or 'LinkedIn account recovery' have experienced a substantial upward trend … while the term 'breakout' in place of percentage indicates that the search term grew by over 5,000%," she wrote.

However, in reports of account hacks posted online, two scenarios have emerged, one in which LinkedIn already has taken some action on the part of users. The second scenario is more unfortunate in that victims’ LinkedIn accounts are fully hacked in such a way that it's impossible for them to recover their accounts independently. darkreading.com


New Cybersecurity Disclosure Rules Spark Mixed Reactions
SEC cyber rules ignite tension between reputation and security risk

The rules, which take effect Sept. 5, encountered mixed reactions. Some champion board-level cyber accountability. Others say the rules are too big of a lift.

Weeks after the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new cybersecurity disclosure rules, publicly traded companies across the U.S. and abroad are reassessing internal security practices and governance to prepare for heightened levels of accountability.

Following a combative open hearing, the SEC voted 3-2 for new rules that require companies to disclose material cyber incidents to the agency. Companies will have four business days to report the incident to the SEC once they determine it is material to the business.

The rules, which will go into effect Sept. 5, are designed to ensure investors and other members of the public are informed about these events in a much more timely and consistent manner.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler said if a company lost a factory in a fire that would be considered material to the business, and the loss of millions of files to a cyberattack needs to be treated with the same level of materiality.

“Whether it’s a material factory [incident] or a material cybersecurity incident, it may be important to those investment decisions that we oversee the disclosure for,” Gensler said during the July 26 open meeting.

Over many years, the agency’s disclosure requirements have “evolved to meet investors needs in changing times,” he said. cybersecuritydive.com


Tracking Down AI Vulnerabilities
When Hackers Descended to Test A.I., They Found Flaws Aplenty

The hackers had the blessing of the White House and leading A.I. companies, which want to learn about vulnerabilities before those with nefarious intentions do.

The hackers tried to break through the safeguards of various A.I. programs in an effort to identify their vulnerabilities — to find the problems before actual criminals and misinformation peddlers did — in a practice known as red-teaming. Each competitor had 50 minutes to tackle up to 21 challenges — getting an A.I. model to “hallucinate” inaccurate information, for example.

They found political misinformation, demographic stereotypes, instructions on how to carry out surveillance and more.

The exercise had the blessing of the Biden administration, which is increasingly nervous about the technology’s fast-growing power. Google (maker of the Bard chatbot), OpenAI (ChatGPT), Meta (which released its LLaMA code into the wild) and several other companies offered anonymized versions of their models for scrutiny.

Dr. Ghosh, a lecturer at Northeastern University who specializes in artificial intelligence ethics, was a volunteer at the event. The contest, he said, allowed a head-to-head comparison of several A.I. models and demonstrated how some companies were further along in ensuring that their technology was performing responsibly and consistently.

He will help write a report analyzing the hackers’ findings in the coming months. The goal, he said: “an easy-to-access resource for everybody to see what problems exist and how we can combat them.” nytimes.com


'Cybersecurity has never been more visible in businesses'
Boards Don't Want Security Promises — They Want Action

CISOs must demonstrate that security processes and updates reduce risk in measurable ways. Put emphasis on action, get the basics right, and improve processes.

Cybersecurity has never been more visible in businesses. The sheer number of stories around hacks affecting companies has pushed this up the agenda, while the Securities and Exchange Commission requirements on cybersecurity reporting will force others to improve their position, too. The impact here means that management boards are now more likely than ever to include the CISO or equivalent.

According to Heidrick and Struggles' 2022 Chief Information Security Officer Survey, CISOs already have the ear of the board — 88% present monthly on their activities to the full board or to a cybersecurity board committee.

So, as cybersecurity professionals, we should have reached that promised land where our influence is felt and we can achieve the goals that we want to achieve, right? Wrong. Like a dog that chased a car, we have now caught it and must work out exactly what we are going to achieve with the resulting responsibility. The truth is, the hard work is only beginning. darkreading.com


Researchers Trick an iPhone Into Faking Airplane Mode

White House Orders Federal Agencies to Bolster Cyber Safeguards

Costa Mesa, CA: $100,000 in handbags stolen in mob theft at South Coast Plaza
A group ran into a temporary Gucci store in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza, grabbed an estimated $100,000 in handbags and ran out to waiting cars in the parking lot Wednesday evening, Aug. 16, authorities said. Costa Mesa police were searching for five to 10 thieves who hustled into the store just after 7:15 p.m. while the store was open and customers were inside, Sgt. Jose Morales said. The thieves didn’t use any weapons and there were no reported injuries, the sergeant said. The store, at a temporary location while the primary store is under construction, is close to multiple exits. Police were on scene within minutes, Morales said. The specific number of handbags stolen was unclear. The dollar figure is retail value.  ocregister.com


Shawnee, KS: $138,000 worth of stolen merchandise recovered at Shawnee residence
Shawnee Police detectives recovered more than 450 items, believed to be stolen, from an area residence. The Shawnee Police Departments said earlier this year detectives received information that resulted in a months-long investigation with the help of area law enforcement agencies. On Wednesday, investigators served a search warrant at a residence in western Shawnee. During the investigation, detectives recovered a total of 479 suspected stolen merchandise, mostly power tools, with an estimated worth of $138,000. The police department said once the investigation is complete, the case will be turned over to the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of possible charges.  fox4kc.com


Memphis, TN: One of 4 arrested in smash-and-grab burglary hit by car running from store
One of four people allegedly involved with the latest smash-and-grab burglary of a Memphis business was arrested after running away from the crime. Malik Pigram, 22, was charged with burglary of a building and a convicted felon in possession of a handgun. Busters Liquors, located at 191 S. Highland Street near the intersection of Poplar Avenue, was burglarized Aug. 17 after 4:30 a.m. when a truck drove into the store's glass front doors. Bottles of liquor and wine estimated worth $5,000 was stolen, a police report says. A person saw Pigram running east from the store and across Highland Street, police said. A car struck him crossing Highland before he ran south into an apartment complex. Police found him underneath a car, records show. A 9-mm gun with a round of ammunition in its chamber, another in its magazine, was found in Pigrim's jacket pocket, police said. Pigram pled guilty to attempted carjacking charges on Jan. 28, 2021, according to the report, police said. His bond was set at $35,000.  fox13memphis.com


Los Angeles, CA: First arrest made in YSL store smash-and-grab in Glendale; at least 1 other suspect at large
Police in Glendale announced their first arrest in a smash-and-grab burglary at a popular shopping center that was caught on video. Ivan Isaac Ramirez, a 23-year-old from Los Angeles, was arrested Thursday morning as the first person directly connected to the burglary at the Americana at Brand's Yves Saint Laurent store. Ramirez was booked on several charges including organized retail theft, burglary, grand theft and conspiracy. A second suspect, 21-year-old Brianna Jimenez of Los Angeles, is currently at large, according to police.  abc7.com


Onalaska, WI: Man accused of stealing $13K from his Card/ Collectables store employer
An employee of a retail store in Onalaska has been accused of stealing over $13,000 in merchandise. Joshua A. Mueller, 43, Winona, Minnesota, faces a single felony count of theft of movable property. The criminal complaint was filed Aug. 8 in La Crosse County Circuit Court. An initial court appearance has been scheduled for Sept. 5. According to the criminal complaint, Onalaska police responded to a July 13 call that Mueller had taken four boxes of trading cards valued at $700. The complaint says the store’s video surveillance from July 9 shows Mueller putting the boxes inside a backpack. Police interviewed Mueller at the store. He initially talked to police but reportedly declined to answer whether he had removed the boxes from the store. He signed a signature bond and was allowed to leave. On July 28, the store owner called police and said Mueller stole more merchandise than originally reported. The complaint says police were provided with six video recordings that show Mueller taking merchandise from July 2-12. The store reported the cost of the merchandise at $13,120. The store owner says surveillance video is kept for only 3-4 weeks and that additional merchandise is unaccounted for. The owner reported about $20,000 in missing inventory. The complaint says Mueller sold over $9,000 of the stolen merchandise through the store’s eBay account and paid himself via a consignment shop on Venmo. He allegedly attempted to sell another $765 after he was arrested and fired, but the payment was blocked.  lacrossetribune.com


3 Petaluma retail thefts in one day being investigated, one arrested; Dick’s, Wilco, and Kohl’s totaling over $5000