Retail Settings Continue to See Deadly Mass Shooting Attacks 

DOJ Investigating Racist Attack That Left 3 Dead at Dollar General Store
The shooter donned a bulletproof vest and mask before heading to the Dollar General store

Jacksonville shooter tried to enter historically Black college before killing 3 in Dollar General store
A White gunman who opened fire in a Jacksonville Dollar General store, killing three Black people in what law enforcement called a racially motivated attack, first tried to enter the campus of nearby historically Black college but was turned away, according to a notice from the school.

The man, identified on Sunday as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter from Clay County, Fla., was denied entry to Edward Waters University by a security officer, and local law enforcement was alerted. "The individual refused to identify themselves and was asked to leave," said the statement, adding that the person "returned to his car without incident."

Palmeter donned a bulletproof vest and mask before heading to the Dollar General store less than a mile away and opening fire, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters (R) said in an interview on CNN on Saturday. Armed with an AR-15-type rifle inscribed with German Nazi insignia and a handgun, he killed two male victims, ages 19 and 29, inside the store, and one female victim, age 52, in the car park outside at the store before fatally shooting himself.

The shooter believed to have acted alone and did not know the victims. Local law enforcement said that he "hated Black people" and left behind evidence that the attack was racially motivated. Around 30 percent of Jacksonville's 970,000 residents are Black.

Waters said in a Saturday news conference said Palmeter detailed a "disgusting ideology of hate" toward Black people in several manifestos that he wrote before the attack. The FBI's Jacksonville office is investigating the shooting as a hate crime, the agency said in a statement posted on social media.

"The Justice Department is investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Sunday. He also extended condolences to "the loved ones of the victims and to the Jacksonville community as they mourn an unimaginable loss." washingtonpost.com  jacksonville.com

   DOJ Response: AG Merrick B. Garland Statement on Jacksonville Shooting

   RELATED: Police identify victims in racially-motivated Fla. Dollar General shooting


In Case You Missed It:

Retail Locations Among Top Targets for Mass Shootings
California, Texas & Florida Face Greatest Mass Shooting Risk in U.S.

Mass Shootings Steadily Increased Over Last 50 Years-And Big States Like California And Texas Face Highest Risk, Study Finds
As the number of mass shootings in the U.S. continues to steadily increase, the most populous states face the highest risk, as do certain locations such as workplaces or retail locations, a study out Tuesday found, after researchers assessed more than 60 years of data to predict the risk of future tragedies.

The rate of mass shootings has been steadily increasing over the past 50 years, Cameron MacKenzie, an Iowa State University professor and co-author of the study, said, adding that the number of mass shootings in the U.S. has increased by about one shooting every 10 years since the 1970's.

The states that have the greatest risk of a mass shooting are the most populous states-California, Texas, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania-and together they account for 44% of all mass shootings, the study published in the journal Risk Analysis found.

Using that data from the Violence Project researchers calculated the probability a mass shooting would occur in nine different types of public locations-restaurant, school, workplace, house of worship, retail, college or university, government building, place of residence, or the outdoors-in California and Iowa.

In both Iowa and California, the location with the highest risk of a mass shooting was a workplace, followed by retail location and restaurant, bar or nightclub. forbes.com


Theft is the Hottest Topic in Retail
How 'shrink' became the biggest story in retail

Retail theft, or "shrink," as business executives put it, has run wild.

In waves of earnings calls, references to shrink resemble the retail industry's upside-down version of mentioning AI. But instead of generating hype, citing shrink softens the blow of sinking profits.

The most prominent mention of shrink in recent weeks came from Dick's Sporting Goods. The theme of missing merchandise also featured in recent calls from Dollar Tree, Macy's, Home Depot, and Target.

Analysts say the trend reflects a real problem for retailers, and one that they are taking steps to prevent. And as executives continue to hammer on the industry-wide threat coming from shrink, the concept has gathered momentum and can work as a crutch for explaining weaker financial performance.

Growing 'shrink'

Jonathan Simon, a criminal justice professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, said businesses probably do have relatively accurate estimates of how much their inventory is shrinking due to theft. And that it's possible retail theft has increased partially because of online resale platforms, which serve as a conduit for organized theft for profit.

"But businesses also have an incentive to place more emphasis on theft as it shifts the responsibility for business shrinkage - never a good look to investors or customers - to an abstract but blameworthy factor like organized crime," he said.

Beyond the 'smash and grab'

The dramatic crime figures and sensationalized videos that have drawn broader public attention have also invited criticism that the problem might be overblown. Janine Stichter, a research analyst covering consumer retail and lifestyle platforms at BTIG, said citing shrink figures isn't something that you can fake for very long.

Stichter sees the timing of shrink's big moment in earnings calls, which picked up at the end of last year, as coinciding with price increases and a weaker economic environment, highlighting a link between crime and a tougher economy. finance.yahoo.com

   RELATED: Nordstrom stock reverses gains as execs warn about 'historic' retail theft


Anti-Theft / LP Measures Are Working
Ulta says locked fragrance cabinets are helping sales

The cases, which are in about half of the beauty retailer's stores, are reducing theft and keeping product in stock.

Ulta Beauty continued its sales streak in the second quarter, with a 10% jump in net sales to $2.5 billion. Comps grew 8% thanks to increased transactions, according to a Thursday press release. Both operating and net income nudged slightly up in the quarter, with net income reaching just over $300 million. Ulta called out shrink again as a challenge to profit, but the retailer is taking action to prevent it.

After indicating in May that it would put fragrances behind locked cases to combat theft, the retailer has rolled out those fixtures to about half of its stores and is seeing sales improve as a result, Chief Operating Officer Kecia Steelman said on a call with analysts.

Ulta executives discussed increased theft in detail this spring, saying incidents had become more violent and aggressive. Now, with locked fragrance cases in about 50% of its stores, the retailer said there hasn't been a negative impact on shoppers yet.

"We actually saw sales improvement because we were in stock with the product and we had it available to the guests," Steelman said on an earnings call Thursday. "We're also investing in labor because we don't want to be sales preventative from the guests being able to purchase ... The bottom line is that we're pleased that we're able to maintain our in-stocks for our guests, and quite frankly, keep the bad actors from coming into our stores."

CEO Dave Kimbell touted double-digit traffic growth in the quarter, and said the beauty retailer saw growth in every major category it sells. The retailer continues to expand its brick-and-mortar presence, opening three new stores in the quarter and 62 shop-in-shops at Target. Ulta is now located in 421 Target stores, Kimbell said. retaildive.com


'Our goal is not to prosecute'
'A work in progress': The 'Citation Docket' meant to reduce Baltimore's petty crime is off to slow start
When State's Attorney Ivan Bates started the "Citation Docket," he touted it as distinguishing him from his predecessor, Marilyn Mosby, also a Democrat, who discontinued the prosecution of low-level offenses. Bates said the goal was to avoid arrests and prosecutions, instead diverting defendants to community service and wraparound help.

"Our goal is not to prosecute," Bates said at the time, asking for patience as he rolled out the program and dealt with any initial hiccups. "Our goal is to hold people accountable for these quality-of-life crimes."

Critics remain concerned Bates' policy will lead to unnecessary arrests and prosecutions that won't make Baltimore, which has averaged more than 300 homicides a year for the last eight years, safer. They predict long-term trends will show enforcement disproportionately targeting marginalized communities, and describe a host of consequences from summoning someone to court for loitering, trespassing and open containers.

"Bringing police back into the business of policing low-level offenses means, by definition, bringing them back into address poverty, mental health struggles, addiction, when we know that criminal justice intervention is not the most effective response to those challenges," said Heather Warnken, director of the University of Baltimore School of Law's Center for Criminal Justice Reform. "We are creating unnecessary interactions and ongoing inequities." baltimoresun.com


Teenage Retail Violence Continues
Hundreds of teenagers at scene of brawls in Emeryville, 1 stabbed in mall melee
Brawls broke out and at least one person was stabbed after hundreds of teenagers swarmed the Bay Street shopping complex in Emeryville on Sunday, police said.

The unrest began around 4:30 p.m. when workers at an unidentified business at the East Bay mall reported that about 50 young adults were "causing a disturbance" inside the store, Oliver Collins, a captain with the Emeryville Police Department, said in a statement Sunday evening. Officers responded to escort the youth out of the store, Collins said.

Over the next hours, however, several fights erupted as hundreds of additional teenagers packed the mall, police said. After the initial skirmish, a group of "about 100 young adults" showed up at the mall, Collins said. They were followed by an additional "100 to 150 more" teenagers, according to estimates of officers dispatched to patrol the area, he said. sfchronicle.com


   Editorial: Retailers reeling from organized crime thievery

   Times Square back to the bad old days: 'It's a sh-thole'


San Francisco's Ongoing War on Crime & Homelessness

San Francisco's Tale of Two Cities
Despite Soaring Retail Vacancies, Luxury Thrives in Downtown San Francisco
Concerns about crime and declining foot traffic in recent years have spurred a mass exodus of stores from the area around Union Square, San Francisco's best-known shopping district. Downtown retailers from Anthropologie to Crate and Barrel to Nordstrom have shut their doors. The area has quadruple the retail vacancy rate of San Francisco overall.

But it's a different story for the luxury sector.

A handful of high-end brands aren't just holding on in Downtown-they are expanding. Along with luxury brands, services and restaurants that cater to a clientele with deep pockets are also opening for business.

Retailers are also clinging to a silver lining in the form of recent numbers showing tourism has been roaring back in the city.

Union Square has enjoyed a comeback since the bleak days of the pandemic, with a 22% jump in foot traffic since last year. Visitor spending is also expected to continue to grow in 2023, up from the $522 million in tourism-generated fees and tax revenue delivered to the city last year, according to a report by the city's official visitor bureau, San Francisco Travel.

Visitors better be ready to spend when they get here.  sfstandard.com


Cleaning Up San Francisco Faces Opposition
Tenants Want Homeless Sweeps Back

Dueling rallies show homelessness divides SF more than ever
Opposing sides of San Francisco converged at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday morning for a hearing about one of the major flashpoints embroiling The City: how to best serve its unhoused population. Oral arguments in the ongoing legal battle between The City and the Coalition on Homelessness were made Wednesday over illegal street sweeps of homeless encampments.

The coalition filed a lawsuit against The City in September, alleging that officials were conducting illegal street sweeps of homeless encampments without offering unhoused people adequate alternatives to shelter. In December, Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu issued an injunction against The City, ordering officials to suspend certain sweeps of homeless encampments, offer adequate shelter and catalog unclaimed belongings.

In the months since, the coalition has accused The City of not abiding by the injunction, a claim that City Attorney David Chiu disputed earlier this summer. The fight has put Mayor London Breed and several city supervisors at odds with the coalition and several advocacy groups. Prior to the hearing, the two groups gathered in front of the courthouse to rally for or against the lawsuit. sfexaminer.com

   San Francisco's Castro shopkeepers struggle with crime, encampments

The Facial Recognition Surge Continues
Face biometrics adoption hits another gear

Face biometrics rollouts are proliferating for popular consumer products and services

Top biometrics news of the week

Major League Baseball fans became able to use facial recognition instead of presenting tickets or scanning their phones to enter the ballpark in Philadelphia this past Monday, in a pilot implementation.

California is taking the next step in the rollout of its mobile driver's license by launching an app featuring iProov's face biometrics and liveness detection. The mDL can be added to the dedicated app on iOS or Android devices, but not to their native mobile wallets.

Fingerprint biometrics are being adopted by banks around the world to make onboarding and authentication at branches and ATMs secure and compliant.

Corsight Chief Privacy Officer Tony Porter decries the use of an evaluation from 2019 which has already been updated as evidence that facial recognition algorithms are generally biased in another Biometric Update guest post. Even using the old version of the NIST FRVT for demographics, advocates often misrepresent the conclusions that can be drawn from it, Porter points out.

Troubled social media platform X is introducing selfie biometrics from Au10tix to verify the identity of premium service subscribers, and seemingly as an option for other users. The site formerly known as Twitter is undergoing changes with the ambition of becoming a super-app. Microsoft is also introducing identity verification for advertisers using document checks.

LinkedIn is expanding its use of selfie biometrics from Clear to Canada, in the first rollout behind its U.S. base.

The Spark platform used by Walmart delivery drivers has reportedly responded to an identity fraud problem by implementing selfie biometrics checks with Persona's technology. biometricupdate.com


Targeting Sticking to Its Guns on Hybrid Work Despite Pushback
Businesses are pressuring Target to force its employees to return to the office - and it's more evidence that companies can't win in the remote work wars

Target is sticking to a flexible hybrid work schedule for employees at its Minneapolis headquarters.

Companies from Amazon to Goldman Sachs are forcing employees back to their corporate offices. But not Target. Corporate employees at Target aren't subject to a company-wide return to office mandate, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported on Thursday.

Managers can set requirements for their teams under Target's policy, but workers are subject to what Target calls a "flex your day" approach, the Journal reported. That means employees can pursue a hybrid schedule instead of having to come into an office for a certain number of days each week.

But many businesses in Minneapolis, Target's hometown, aren't thrilled by the policy, the Journal reported.

In downtown Minneapolis, where the retailer has its corporate headquarters, restaurant owners say that food traffic is still down significantly compared to before the pandemic. The difference is especially pronounced around lunchtime on weekdays.

"We've lost an arm and a leg staying put and waiting for downtown to get back," David Fhima, who owns two restaurants in downtown Minneapolis, told the Journal. "We're done waiting. We're calling on Target: Do your part, please." businessinsider.com


Store closing announcements up, along with retail bankruptcies
In the first six months of calendar 2023, significant U.S. retailers announced plans to open about 3,420 new stores, down sharply from about 5,080 announced openings in last year's first half, according to analytical work by The Daily on Retail, an investor-oriented consumer research platform. Retailers announced plans to close about 3,365 stores, nearly four times higher than the approximately 895 store closings announced in the first and second quarters of 2022.

The drop in opening announcements and jump in closing announcements reflect the tougher consumer backdrop after two very good years with the benefit from pandemic-related stimulus in 2021 and excess pandemic savings in 2022, as well as the strong labor market in both years. nrf.com


Starbucks is experimenting with 'scanless checkout' for drive-through users
Starbucks is testing a new way for customers to pay for their favorite beverages - without even having to pull out their phone. The company confirmed an internal test of "scanless pay," a new contactless checkout method that would leverage a Starbucks app's user's current geolocation to identify them in the drive-through lane so they wouldn't have to pull out their phone to pay. The experience is currently only being tested as a proof-of-concept with Starbucks employees, the company told TechCrunch. It doesn't have a set date as to when such a feature would launch to consumers, or even if it will. techcrunch.com


Hurricane watch issued for Florida Gulf Coast as Idalia gains strength
The storm could rapidly intensify over the eastern gulf before making landfall Tuesday into Wednesday

Aldi deal to buy Winn-Dixie doesn't include pharmacies

The Fresh Market set to scale store fleet by 14% over 2 years

L.A. might ban cashless businesses. Here's what's at stake
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Vice President, Physical Security, Health, Safety, and Environment job posted for Richemont in Shelton, CT
The VP; Physical Security, Health, Safety, and Environment leads these combined functions (PSHSE) for the Richemont Americas Region, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. The role oversees all related activities for the Region's coporate offices, retail boutiques, and operational facilities, leading the development, implementation, and advancement of PSHSE strategies, polices, and practices, in partnership with Group Security and Region leaders, and providing thought leadership and best-practices insights to protect employees and customers, and physical and intellectual assets (excluding information technology). jobs.richemont.com


Director, Security job posted for Walmart in Bentonville, AR
Provides overall direction by analyzing business objectives and customer needs; developing, communicating, building support for, and implementing business strategies, plans, and practices; analyzing costs and forecasts and incorporating them into business plans; determining and supporting resource requirements; evaluating operational processes; measuring outcomes to ensure desired results; identifying and capitalizing on improvement opportunities; promoting a customer environment; and demonstrating adaptability and sponsoring continuous learning. walmart.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com


Manager, Asset Protection Solutions job posted for Walgreens in Woodland, CA
Manages safety and security programs, procedures, techniques, and equipment related to DC and Central Pharmacy facility employees. Proactively identifies, investigates and reports potential and actual exposure to loss of Company assets. Develops means to minimize risk, ensure compliance to Company policy and provide guidance to DC store/personnel on detecting and preventing loss. jobs.walgreens.com


Division Asset Protection Manager job posted for Casey's in Sioux Falls, SD
As a Division Asset Protection Manager, you'll investigate, manage, resolve, and coordinate all asset protection, shrink and waste, and safety functions in the stores within your assigned division (approximately 500 store locations). As a Division Asset Protection Manager, you'll partner with all levels of Store Operations to ensure shrinkage and waste programs are implemented and achieving maximum effectiveness, as well as being the leader for all critical incidents and responses. recruiting.adp.com


Cyber Security Manager job posted for Jushi Holdings in Boca Raton, FL
Responsible for developing IT security governance and managing cyber security, data protection and the IT components of HIPAA and Sox programs as well as drafting, reviewing and/or implementing policies and procedures supporting same. Develop and deliver IT security standards, best practices, architecture, and systems to ensure information system security across the enterprise. Implement procedures and methods for auditing and addressing risk and non-compliance to information security standards. Jushi Holdings Inc. is a national, multi-state cannabis company developing and operating high-end retail locations, premium brands and state-of-the-art cultivation, processing and manufacturing facilities. indeed.com
 

Last week's #1 article --

Dollar Tree Becomes Latest Retailer to Blame Theft for Profit Slump
Theft has "definitely advanced a little further than what we had anticipated"

Dollar Tree says theft is such a problem it will start locking up items or stop selling them altogether
Dollar Tree had a miserable quarter, and company management is chalking it up to a mix of factors: changing consumer demands on top of higher prices for fuel and electricity ... and theft. The company's chief executive and chief financial officer homed in on that last one on a call with Wall Street analysts Thursday.

Dollar Tree CEO Richard Dreiling and CFO Jeffrey Davis blamed a surprisingly large drop in gross profit margin - tumbling to 29.8% last quarter from 32.7% a year earlier - on "shrink," the industry term for inventory losses due to theft, damages and other causes.

Davis said the company has taken steps to fix the problem, but the shrink issue is getting worse - and "definitely advanced a little further than what we had anticipated." In response, Dreiling said Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores, which the company also owns, will take more drastic measures in the coming months.  cbsnews.com

Zoom Collecting Your Data to Train Their AI
Vendors Training AI With Customer Data is an Enterprise Risk

While Zoom has scrapped plans to harvest customer content for use in its AI and ML models, the incident should raise concerns for enterprises and consumers a like.

Zoom received some flak recently for planning to use customer data to train its machine learning models. The reality, however, is that the video conferencing company is not the first, nor will it be the last, to have similar plans.

Enterprises-especially those busy integrating AI tools for internal use-should be viewing these potential plans as emerging challenges which need to be proactively addressed with new processes, oversight and technology controls where possible.

Abandoned AI Plans

Zoom earlier this year changed its terms of service to give itself the right to use at least some customer content to train their AI and machine learning models. In early August the company abandoned that change after pushback from some customers who were concerned about their audio, video, chat and other communications being used fin this way.

The incident-despite the happy ending for now-is a reminder that companies need to pay closer attention to how technology vendors and other third parties might use their data in the rapidly emerging AI era.

Clear Distinction

It's a distinction that is already the focus of attention in a handful of lawsuits involving major technology companies and consumers. One of them pits Google against a class of millions of consumers. The lawsuit filed July in San Francisco accuses Google of scraping publicly available data on the Internet-including personal and professional information, creative and copywritten works, photos and even emails-and using them to train its Bard generative AI technology. "In the words of the FTC, the entire tech industry is "sprinting to do the same" - that is, to vacuum up as much data as they can find," the lawsuit alleged.

Another class action lawsuit accuses Microsoft of doing precisely the same thing to train ChatGPT and other AI tools such as Dall.E and Vall.E. In July, comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors accused Meta and Microsoft of using their copyrighted material without consent for AI training purposes.

Oversight and Due Diligence: darkreading.com

 
Small Businesses Targeted by Ransomware
Ransomware With an Identity Crisis Targets Small Businesses, Individuals

TZW is the latest version of Adhubllka, which has been active since 2019 but has gone largely unreported due to its lower ransom demands.

Researchers have identified a new strain of ransomware that dates back to 2019 and targets individuals and small businesses, demanding small ransoms from each client rather than the often million-dollar sums that typical ransomware actors ask.

TZW is the latest strain of the Adhubllka ransomware family, which first appeared in January 2020 but already was active the year before, researchers from security and operations analytics firm Netenrich revealed in a blog post published this week.

Even more important than the discovery of the strain is the process that researchers undertook to identify it correctly. Over the years, many of the samples of Adhubllka have been misclassified and/or mistagged into some other ransomware family, says Rakesh Krishnan, senior threat analyst at Netenrich.

"This would confuse threat hunters/security researchers while doing an incident report," he says. Indeed, researchers report that multiple engines had previously detected TZW but found traces of other malware, such as CryptoLocker, in the sample. darkreading.com

 
Fighting the Deepfake Scourge
Unleashing the power of liveness detection: A game-changer in the battle against deepfakes
The generative AI revolution is here. With its ability to augment human intelligence and effort in a wide variety of fields including healthcare, robotics and creative endeavors, it is no wonder that the global market for generative AI is predicted to be $110 billion by 2030. However, this rapidly advancing technology also starts to seriously question whether the image, audio or video that you just experienced is real or an AI-generated deepfake. Deepfakes have the potential to cause significant harm by spreading misinformation, manipulating public opinion, and eroding trust.

One recent example is Senator Blumenthal's opening remarks at the Senate hearing on AI, in which he began by speaking with his voice and eventually switched to a deepfake impersonation of his voice. It was used to highlight how deepfakes are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. Deepfakes also can upend the determination of remote identity either when someone opens or accesses an account. In either of these cases, biometrics have been used to successfully safeguard accounts from fraudulent financial transactions, fraudulent access to healthcare records and identity theft. Biometrics answers the question, incredibly conveniently and accurately, whether it is the right human opening or accessing the account. With deepfakes, biometrics need to be augmented to answer a precursor question, which is, is this even a human opening or accessing an account or a machine?

One of the most promising technologies for augmenting biometrics and combating deepfakes is liveness detection, a technique leveraging attributes that come naturally to humans but are hard for machines to replicate at scale over sustained periods. biometricupdate.com
 

How the downmarket impacted enterprise cybersecurity budgets

'Whiffy Recon' Malware Transmits Device Location Every 60 Seconds

Los Angeles, CA: Undercover Police Sting Thieves At East L.A. Nike Store, Arrest 10 In Ongoing Retail Crime War
Score one for the good guys. In the ongoing battle against organized retail theft at Los Angeles County stores, police arrested 10 people during a two-day undercover operation at the Nike Community Store in East Los Angeles. The arrests were made Thursday and Friday, and more than $3,000 of recovered merchandise was returned to Nike, according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Detectives with an LASD burglary-robbery task force worked with the East Los Angeles Station Crime Enforcement Team, Summer Enforcement Team and Nike Loss Prevention on various surveillance operations "to apprehend suspects, deter criminal activity, and protect life and property at the Nike Community Store in East Los Angeles," the department said.  deadline.com


San Joaquin County, CA: Detectives investigating organized retail thefts at Stockton Sephora witness another attempt
Three women are facing charges in connection with organized retail theft at a Sephora in Stockton that happened while detectives were in the store, authorities said. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office said the detectives were investigating previous thefts at the store at Lincoln Center last week. Two women were recognized by store employees. The workers told the detectives that the women had stolen items before. The sheriff's office said detectives watched as the women walked around the store, putting stuff into their bags then walked out without paying. The detectives gave patrol deputies a heads-up about what was happening. The deputies then found the suspects' car in a nearby parking lot and all three women were arrested. Deputies said they found the stolen merchandise worth more than $3,000 in the trunk. All three women were booked on felony grand theft, organized retail crime and conspiracy.  kcra.com


California AG Announces Charges Against 4 Suspects in 'Smash-and-Grab' Robberies
California Attorney General Rob Bonta Friday announced arrests and charges against four people allegedly involved in "smash-and-grab" robberies carried out at high-end retail stores in Los Angeles and Riverside counties earlier this month. The suspects are accused of being members of an organized retail theft ring that planned the attacks and burglaries at a Burberry, a Nordstrom, and a Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) store between August 1 and August 12. Their crime spree resulted in more than $750,000 in losses to the stores. Today, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) filed multiple felony charges, including grand theft and second-degree robbery, against the suspects. "Organized retail theft harms businesses, retailers, and consumers - and puts the public at risk," said Attorney General Bonta. "I want to thank our local law enforcement partners for their work in apprehending the suspects in this case. The California Department of Justice and its partners will continue fighting to keep our communities, businesses, and consumers safe from retail theft and other crimes." The suspects in this case are alleged to have taken part in a coordinated series of crimes that involved breaking into stores across Southern California, destroying property and stealing merchandise. The alleged crimes included:

• A burglary and theft of $97,000 of merchandise at a Burberry outlet store in Riverside County on August 1, involving two of the suspects;

• A robbery of approximately $300,000 of merchandise at a YSL store at the Americana Mall in Glendale, Los Angeles County, on August 8, involving two of the suspects; and

• A robbery of approximately $356,000 of merchandise at a Nordstrom store in Topanga Mall in Los Angeles on August 12, involving three of the suspects.

• Two of the suspects are also accused of carrying out a carjacking on August 7.  contracosta.news


Culver City, CA: Juvenile suspects jump over store's gun counter, Big 5 store robbery caught on video
Surveillance video shows the moment a group of juvenile suspects robbed a Big 5 store in Culver City. The footage captured on Thursday shows the suspects jumping over the gun counter inside the store on Sepulveda Boulevard, according to the Culver City Police Department. One of them punched a store employee and another is accused of making threats while reaching toward his waistband. The suspects took off with several replica BB guns, but they only got a few blocks away before officers found and arrested them. They were booked and released to their respective guardians.  abc7.com


El Centro, CA: El Centro Police Foil 'Ulta'-mate Crime; Arrests Duo
An apparently short-lived interstate crime spree ended in the Imperial Valley when a duo out of San Bernardino County was arrested for the daylight burglary of Ulta Beauty on East Danenberg Drive in El Centro. One suspect, 24-year-old Dalin Willie Morton of San Bernardino, was arrested near the site of the attempted heist, which was reported just after 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, after a brief foot chase with El Centro police, according to call log information. The second suspect fled in the getaway car, a stolen Kia rental out of San Bernardino, and was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol at the Highway 86 checkpoint. Taken into custody was 31-year-old Loren Nicole Richmond of Ontario, who initially was identified in the logs as "Jenaia." Both were booked on counts of second-degree burglary, grand theft, and conspiracy to commit a crime.  calexicochronicle.com


Highland Park, CA: 6 arrested for WSS shoe store robbery
Six people were arrested for organized robberies targeting a Warehouse Shoe Store (WSS) in Highland Park. The thefts targeting the store located at 6251 York Blvd. happened on Aug. 22-23, according to L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón. On Aug. 22 at around 4 p.m., Olivares and Palazuelos allegedly entered the WSS store and stole a large amount of shoes and merchandise without paying for it. They fled the scene before police could arrive. On Aug. 23 at around 1 p.m., Thomas, Metcalf and Manuel allegedly entered the store and began grabbing merchandise before stuffing them into large bags. The suspects fled the scene in a getaway car before police could arrive. All three suspects also pled not guilty at a Saturday arraignment hearing. A future preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8.  ktla.com


Menomonee Falls, WI: Kohl's $6,000 makeup theft; police seek to ID 3 women suspected
Menomonee Falls police are asking for the public's help to identify three women they say shoplifted more than $6,000 in makeup from the Kohl's Department Store on Appleton Avenue. Officials say the crime happened just before 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 21. Police say the three women arrived in a silver minivan (pictured below), entered the store, selected $6,294 of makeup - and hid the merchandise in their clothing.  fox6now.com


Albuquerque, NM: Video shows men allegedly stealing purses from Albuquerque store

Hopkins County, TX: Pair Arrested on Warrants for Theft/ Criminal Trespass in Sulphur Springs

Australia: 20+ new chainsaws stolen in $30,000 Hobart heist