RILA Demands Congressional Action
Retail CEOs Call on Congress to Modernize Consumer Protection Laws to Address Surge of Retail Crime

Retail Leaders Urge Passage of INFORM Consumers Act

In a letter to Congressional leadership today, 20 CEOs of leading retailers expressed urgent concern over the growing impact of organized retail crime on retail employees and communities across the U.S. The signatories representing apparel, electronics, health and beauty, home improvement, and general merchandise sectors implore lawmakers to pass the INFORM Consumers Act, legislation that will modernize our consumer protection laws to safeguard families and communities from the sale of illicit products.

"Retailers have made significant investments to combat organized retail crime, but as they note in today's letter, criminals will continue these brazen thefts as long as they are able to anonymously sell their stolen goods via online marketplaces. Fortunately, there is a growing consensus among business leaders, law enforcement, and a bipartisan group of policymakers that INFORM Consumers Act is an important and appropriate step to stemming the tide. Deterring these crimes starts with making it harder for thieves to sell stolen goods online. We urge Congress to seize this opportunity to help protect communities, families, and consumers."

Retail leaders who signed today's letter include:

Shoplifter Brags About How Easy It Is To Steal in San Francisco
Emboldened SF shoplifter say stealing is easy, cites lax security as store takes drastic action
One shoplifter in San Francisco admitted to his crimes during a news interview regarding a grocery store in the city ramping up security measures due to theft.

"I think that they're not very good because I've personally been able to shoplift from here with relative ease," the shoplifter, who declined to provide his name, told KPIX 5 of a Safeway in San Francisco's Castro District.

The previously 24-hour Safeway cut store hours in October over "off the charts" shoplifting at the time. Now, the store is ramping up its security measures even more with automatic gates that close behind each shopper at the entrance and placing security guards both inside and outside the store.

The store also added barriers to its self-checkout areas and closed off a side exit with a wall of water bottles.

Safeway said in a statement to the media that the news measures are intended to halt "escalating theft."

"Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft to ensure the wellbeing of our employees and to foster a welcoming environment for our customers. Their safety remains our top priority. These long-planned security improvements were implemented with those goals in mind," Safeway said in a statement to KPIX 5.

San Francisco has been plagued by retail theft for months, which has escalated in recent weeks to smash-and-grab mobs targeting high-end retail establishments.

The smash-and-grab robberies have been concentrated in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, and have led to increased security at malls and California Highway Patrol increasing its presence along highways near shopping destinations. yahoo.com

San Francisco's Revolving Door of Retail Criminals
SF woman charged 120 times for alleged shoplifting arrested again, jailed
A woman in San Francisco, who was arrested for 120 alleged shoplifting incidents and released on zero bail, is back behind bars after allegedly stealing again.

She allegedly used self-checkouts to scan the items and submit a payment of $1 or even one cent, and then left before the transaction completed.

Despite prosecutors recommending she be held on bail, a San Francisco Superior Court judge released her and ordered her to sign up for a monitoring device and stay away from the Target. She violated the conditions of her release by not wearing her monitor and allegedly stealing again. The District Attorney is again seeking she be held without bail.

"Ms. Graves violated the court ordered terms of her release by committing a new theft, and by failing to sign up for electronic monitoring," District Attorney Chesa Boudin's office said in an email to KPIX 5. "Therefore, we are seeking her detention without bail. Judges alone make decisions about custody and release, so we cannot say whether the court will grant our detention request."

"We previously opposed her release to OR and had requested that she instead be released directly to the Sheriff's Department to be fitted with electronic monitoring device prior to her release," the statement continued. "The judge instead decided to release her to another county."

San Francisco has been plagued by retail theft for months, which has escalated in recent weeks to smash-and-grab mobs targeting high-end retail establishments. news.yahoo.com

   Read more about this case in today's ORC column below

Blaming Retailers for the ORC Surge
Chicago mayor blames retailers for not doing enough to fight organized theft

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed retailers for not making safety a priority amid a string of smash-and-grab thefts at retail stores in recent months.

"We still have retailers that won't institute plans like having security officers in their stores, making sure that they've got cameras that are actually operational, locking up their merchandise at night, chaining high-end bags. These purses can be something that is attracting a lot of organized retail theft units," Lightfoot said Monday.

Rob Karr, the president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said Chicago businesses need the "fingerprinting among leadership to stop."

"The comments that retailers need to do more are sadly misinformed. I think it ignores the fact that retailers spent hundreds of millions of dollars every year on security... We're not going to put the entire store behind glass cases or under lock and key. Retail doesn't work that way," Karr told FOX Business.

"We have a fine line to walk. I don't think the mayor wants a line of armed personnel in every store."

Groups of looters in masks have stormed stores in orchestrated plots to steal thousands of dollars worth of merchandise in downtown Chicago and the city's suburbs. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul began the Organized Retail Crime Task Force to try to combat the smash-and-grab heists.

Karr said the retail thefts not only damage the viability of businesses but also reduce tax revenue for the government and make shoppers fearful during the holiday season.

"Criminals take advantage of the weakest links, and right now Chicago looks like the weakest link, because the very leadership that ought to be addressing this together with us, is fighting with each other over who's to blame," he said. foxbusiness.com

Mall Crime Surging Despite Massive Security Presence
Thousands of calls for service at Lenox Mall despite 'millions' spent on security
Security measures at Lenox Square mall are called into question as Atlanta Police report more than 3,000 calls for service in the last six months.

Atlanta Police also recorded at least 235 crimes at or near the mall so far this year, including 15 robberies, 12 car thefts, and five aggravated assaults. Management had been touting steps they've taken to curb the crime.

"Lenox Square has invested millions of dollars into one of the largest private security programs in the state of Georgia," said Robin Suggs, Lenox Square General Manager.

Some changes include increased security patrol, a curfew for anyone under the age of 18 on property, and also added metal detectors. But CBS46 Investigates found with well over a dozen entrances to the mall, there are only two clear locations with metal detectors.

Suggs says the metal detectors are at strategic locations, and only part of the security program.

"15 off-duty law enforcement officers, the K-9, the off-duty officers coupled with private security, as well as the 200 camera systems and license plate readers. So it's the totality of the program, not simply the location of the weapons detection," Suggs said.

Some holiday shoppers were still hesitant, wondering if this is only a false sense of security.

"That's kind of terrifying," said Ashly Boze, who was shopping in the area. "I grew up in Marietta and this was supposed to be the nice area and the nice mall."

"I'm sure there should be more security here," said Sherryl Perkins. cbs46.com

WSJ Op-Ed on the Alarming U.S. Crime Surge
Yes, the Crime Wave Is as Bad as You Think

Progressives gaslight the public by claiming things used to be worse.

The U.S. experienced its largest-ever single year homicide spike in 2020, and crime now polls as one of the top voter concerns. This has many criminal-justice-reform advocates and their media allies scrambling to convince Americans that things aren't really so bad, no matter what the data say.

True enough: The national murder rate was significantly higher in the 1980s and early '90s. But the national murder rate reflects an aggregation of all the country's homicides measured against the national population. When it comes to the recent upticks in killings, this talking point ignores two important realities.

First, we don't live in the aggregate. The majority of Americans spend their lives in the communities where they live and, if they commute, where they work. Given how hyperconcentrated serious violent crime is-and, therefore, how widely the homicide rate can vary from one neighborhood to the next-the national homicide rate doesn't provide most Americans with a sense of the dangers they face. A handful of extremely safe Illinois suburbs may counterbalance Chicago's contribution to the national murder rate, but that's little consolation to those who live in the South Side war zones.

Second, the claim that crime isn't as bad as it was in the 1990s is no longer true for a long list of American cities, many of which have either surpassed or are currently flirting with that decade's homicide tallies. Philadelphia just shattered its all-time annual homicide record with a full month remaining in 2021, as have Louisville, Ky.; Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Austin, Texas; Tucson, Ariz.; St. Paul, Minn.; Portland, Ore.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Fayetteville, N.C. Other cities, like Cincinnati; Trenton, N.J.; Memphis, Tenn.; Milwaukee; Kansas City, Mo.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Denver; Cleveland; Jackson, Miss.; Wichita, Kan.; Greensboro, N.C.; Lansing, Mich.; and Colorado Springs, Colo., saw their highest homicide tallies since 1990 last year.

Other cities flirting with their previous records include Shreveport, La.; Baltimore; Minneapolis; Rochester, N.Y.; and Tulsa, Okla. St. Louis didn't surpass its highest tally in 2020, but owing to population decline it did set a new record homicide rate. Chicago, Seattle and Fort Worth, Texas, would all have to go back 25 years to see homicide tallies comparable to what they're seeing now.

Shushing skeptics by pointing out that things aren't as bad in the aggregate as they were 30 years ago invites an obvious question: So what? wsj.com

27% Spike in Law Enforcement Deaths - 441 Year-to-Date
19 Deaths in November: 9 COVID - 6 Gunfire - 2 Auto-Related - 2 Heart Attack
In November, 19 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty. The cause breakdown (for November 2021 only) is: 9 COVID-related, 6 gunfire, 2 auto-related, and 2 heart attacks. This means that the year-to-date total for line of duty deaths is at 441, a 27% increase from the same time last year.

The Officer Down Memorial Page extends our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and agencies who lost a loved one to a line of duty death this past month. We encourage our supporters to read the memorials of each of the officers who died in the line of duty.  odmp.org

US: 50.4M Cases - 813.9K Dead - 39.8M Recovered
Worldwide: 268.2M Cases - 5.2M Dead - 241.4M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 328   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 546
*Red indicates change in total deaths

COVID Cases Up 27% Over Past 2 Weeks

Omicron Variant 'Considerably More Infectious'
WHO says omicron variant could change the course of the Covid pandemic
"Certain features of omicron, including its global spread and large number of mutations, suggest it could have a major impact on the course of the pandemic," Tedros said. Genetic changes to the virus affect its virulence and indicate it could be considerably more infectious than previous strains, according to the WHO.

The WHO's remarks comes as the omicron variant, first identified in southern Africa, has been found in 57 countries across the world.

New cases "plateaued" worldwide over the last week, the WHO added. There were more than 4 million new confirmed cases reported across the world, similar to the figures from the previous week.

Deaths worldwide, however, increased by 10% over the last week, the WHO report noted. Over 52,500 new deaths were reported. cnbc.com

National Guard Deployed as COVID Surges
Three Northeast states deploy National Guard amid medical capacity crisis due to pandemic
The governors of Maine and New York deployed the National Guard in response to dangerously low capacity at statewide medical facilities due to the pandemic.

The New York National Guard announced Wednesday that it had deployed 120 medics and medical technicians to a dozen long-term care facilities statewide. The deployment came at the behest of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who issued the order last week in response to staffing shortages.

In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills activated the National Guard following a spike in Covid-19 cases. "I do not take this action lightly, but we must take steps to alleviate the strain on our health care system and ensure care for all those who need it," Mills said in a statement.

In preparation for the winter surge, Gov. Christopher Sununu is calling on the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard to help the state prepare for the Covid-19 winter surge. He announced that in the coming weeks, the state will be deploying an initial group of 70 men and women from the National Guard to help hospitals where the need is most severe, assisting with tasks that will allow for a smoother operation. cnn.com

Effort to Overturn Biden's Vax Mandate Moves Forward
Senate votes to overturn Biden vaccine mandate for businesses
The Senate voted Wednesday night to overturn President Joe Biden's Covid-19 vaccine or testing mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees.

While it likely won't become law since its chances of getting a vote in the House are uncertain and Biden is certain to veto it, the effort demonstrates the bipartisan opposition in Congress to the federal government's vaccine mandate for large employers.

The effort was led by Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun, and it needed just a simple majority of 51 votes to be approved by the chamber. The final vote was 52-48. Two Democrats, Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, joined their 50 GOP colleagues in voting to repeal the requirement.

A federal appeals court last month temporarily blocked the Biden administration's vaccine rules, which had been planned to take effect on January 4. The multiple lawsuits against the mandate have since been consolidated and reassigned to a federal appeals court in Ohio, with many expecting the case to end up before the US Supreme Court. cnn.com

Another Day, Another Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit
NYC correction officers sue over de Blasio's vaccine mandate, work conditions

The deadline for jail workers to be vaccinated was delayed a month because of existing staffing shortages

The union representing New York City correction officers, the department known as the city's "boldest," took a stand Wednesday against Mayor Bill de Blasio's "draconian" vaccine mandate and subsequent dangerous work conditions by filing a lawsuit against the city demanding that the jab policy be halted.

Benny Boscio Jr., the head of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, told the New York Post that hundreds of correction officers were sent home last week and placed on unpaid leave for not rolling up their sleeves for the jab. The problem is compounded because 1,4000 other officers have resigned or retired since 2019, the report said.

Boscio said the city has tried to compensate for the shortfall. Officers have been forced to work 60-hour weeks, which he said is a safety concern because inmates "feed on their vulnerabilities." foxnews.com

How Under Armour Got in Front of the COVID Supply Chain Crisis
'This is the time where supply chain comes to the fore': Under Armour's COO on 20 months of tumult
In February 2020, Under Armour set up a special team built around a core of about a dozen people called "Project Buffalo."

It got its name from the tendency among American Bison to face storms rather than run away from them. Its aim was to respond in real time to a supply chain crisis unfolding as a new coronavirus was spreading through China and other countries, threatening lives and the production of many of the world's goods.

"I've spent many years in supply chain in various parts of the world, so back in February of last year I had a sneaking suspicion having lived in China for a few years that we were at the beginning of what was going to be a longer-term crisis," said Colin Browne, who became Under Armour's chief operating officer at about that same time last year. "The idea of really trying to get ahead of it was, I think, one of the reasons we performed reasonably well as we've gone through it."

That team is still operating today and, one can imagine, is still quite busy.

The pandemic, the world and Under Armour's industry have gone through several evolutions since February 2020. This year's supply chain snarls are different from what companies faced last spring - and are changing every day - but they are still inextricably tied to the pandemic.

In Browne's telling, the pandemic accelerated changes in Under Armour's approach to supply chain that were already underway. The company has been working for years to reduce inventory levels, which in turn can reduce carrying costs throughout the company's supply chain. But, as with apparel and footwear retailers everywhere, managing inventory is also about managing prices and consumer expectations. retaildive.com

Another Victim of COVID
The incredible shrinking holiday party
Early last week, as the Greek letter "omicron" spread across New Yorkers' lips, the city's hospitality firms braced for cancellations. "I had three parties call in two days," said Istvan Nagy, the owner of Side Door and One Lenox, in Midtown East.

Those parties, on the larger side, all canceled. But, Nagy said, the calls then stopped. He said it's a sign that companies, families and friends are persevering with December get-togethers in some form despite the headlines about the omicron variant of the coronavirus. crainsnewyork.com

Massachusetts State Police COVID vaccine mandate challenge dismissed by Labor Relations Board

Pfizer CEO says fourth Covid vaccine doses may be needed sooner than expected due to omicron

Follow the Russian Money Trail
Companies Linked to Russian Ransomware Hide in Plain Sight

Cybersecurity experts tracing money paid by American businesses to Russian ransomware gangs found it led to one of Moscow's most prestigious addresses.

When cybersleuths traced the millions of dollars American companies, hospitals and city governments have paid to online extortionists in ransom money, they made a telling discovery: At least some of it passed through one of the most prestigious business addresses in Moscow.

The Biden administration has also zeroed in on the building, Federation Tower East, the tallest skyscraper in the Russian capital. The United States has targeted several companies in the tower as it seeks to penalize Russian ransomware gangs, which encrypt their victims' digital data and then demand payments to unscramble it.

Those payments are typically made in cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies like Bitcoin, which the gangs then need to convert to standard currencies, like dollars, euros and rubles.

That this high-rise in Moscow's financial district has emerged as an apparent hub of such money laundering has convinced many security experts that the Russian authorities tolerate ransomware operators. The targets are almost exclusively outside Russia, they point out, and in at least one case documented in a U.S. sanctions announcement, the suspect was assisting a Russian espionage agency.

Recorded Future has counted about 50 cryptocurrency exchanges in Moscow City, a financial district in the capital, that in its assessment are engaged in illicit activity. Other exchanges in the district are not suspected of accepting cryptocurrencies linked to crime.

The Treasury Department has estimated that Americans have paid $1.6 billion in ransoms since 2011. One Russian ransomware strain, Ryuk, made an estimated $162 million last year encrypting the computer systems of American hospitals during the pandemic and demanding fees to release the data, according to Chainalysis, a company tracking cryptocurrency transactions.

The cluster of suspected cryptocurrency exchanges in Federation Tower East, first reported last month by Bloomberg News, further illustrates how the Russian ransomware industry hides in plain sight. nytimes.com

Employee Burnout: A Cybersecurity Threat?
Everyone is burned out. That's becoming a security nightmare

Two years into the pandemic and the challenges around remote working are taking their toll. We're making bad tech security decisions as a result.

Cybersecurity workers and other employees are suffering from a high level of burnout that is putting organisations at greater risks from cyberattacks and data breaches.

Research by cybersecurity company 1Password suggests that the challenge of remote working two years into the COVID-19 pandemic is leaving staff feeling burned out and less likely to pay attention to security guidelines.

According to the survey, burned-out employees are more apathetic about workplace cybersecurity measures and are three times more likely to ignore suggested best practices.

Risky behaviours include downloading software and apps without IT's express permission, and thus increasing the amount of shadow IT on networks that's difficult for the IT department to properly manage. There's also the risk that these employees could download fake or malicious versions of apps, which could potentially deliver malware and other threats from hackers.

The paper also warns that burned-out employees are much more likely to use easy-to-guess passwords to secure their corporate accounts. The use of weak passwords makes it much easier for cyber criminals to breach accounts and use that access to snoop around the network, steal information and lay down the foundation for wider malicious activity.

"The biggest threat is internal apathy. When people don't use security protocols properly, they leave our company vulnerable," said one unnamed cybersecurity professional cited in the report. zdnet.com

Executives More Focused Than Ever on Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity can pose a risk in more than one way for financial advisors

Some companies, depending on what sector they're in, may carry more risk than others.

Financial advisors may want to view cybersecurity as a critical issue on more than one level. While protecting client data should be a priority, cyber attacks also could affect the investments they make on behalf of their clients. Basically, some companies may be more prone to costly cyber attacks than others.

"The sectors that I think carry the most amount of risk [include] health care, energy and manufacturing, said Jamil Farshchi, Equifax chief information security officer, at CNBC's Financial Advisor Summit on Wednesday.

"Historically they haven't invested as much and prioritized security as much as some of the other industries such as financial services or technology," Farshchi said.

Part of the way to evaluate a company's cyber risk is to consider what the real-world threats are against the line of business they're in, said Charles Carmakal, Mandiant chief technology officer, who also spoke at the summit.

"Not all organizations have a similar threat as others," Carmakal said. "For instance, there are unique threats to health care that are very different from threats to defense contractors or to government entities."

He also suggests looking at the "security maturity" of the company.

"A lot of companies that have had a major cybersecurity incident tend to be more secure after the fact than perhaps an organization that hasn't lived through a major cybersecurity attack," Carmakal said.

The good news for investors is that corporate boardrooms appear to be more focused on cybersecurity than they once were, Farshchi said. cnbc.com

How CISOs can drive the security narrative

If you want people to follow proper security practices, they need to understand why. That's best done by telling a good story.

An eternal discussion in security is whether technology, process or people are the critical element in information security at scale. Most security leaders will tell you it's the people that matter. Changing people's behavior to care about security practices requires more than simply taking poor practices off the table. It requires new positive habits and motivations. People connect with stories, and the brain naturally synthesizes the journey of a story with people's own experiences and relationships.

Today's security teams need narrative more than ever to convince workers in a hybrid work environment to buy into security and compliance updates. This is as much about people changing practices, being sensitive to the risks of AI assistants and data protection, as it is about tools and technical bits. Your team can use the power of simple tools to drive the narrative and help build the capability, confidence, and competence that lead to change. csoonline.com

How C-suite leaders can work together to maximize cybersecurity
 

FTC Complaint Accuses Amazon of 'Unlawful' Deception
Amazon's search results full of ads that may be 'unlawfully deceiving' consumers, complaint to FTC claims

More than a quarter of search results on Amazon are paid ads, according to the complaint filed by a coalition of labor unions

Amazon doesn't distinguish well enough between paid ads and organic search results, something that could trick consumers, according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday.

More than a quarter of search results on Amazon are paid ads, according to the complaint filed by the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of labor unions. But because the company doesn't clearly label sponsored results, Amazon could be "unlawfully deceiving" customers into clicking on them without knowing, a practice that raises questions about the integrity and quality of Amazon's search results, the petition alleges.

The complaint, shared exclusively with The Washington Post, is based on an analysis of more than 130,000 search results for popular products. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Ad sales are one of Amazon's fastest-growing businesses, and the complaint alleges that the lack of disclosures on these practices runs afoul of consumer protection law. The company delays labels indicating that a search result is sponsored by an advertiser for several seconds after a page loads, the group claims, a practice that "deliberately obfuscat[es]" ads. The coalition's researchers determined that the company was "substantially or entirely out of compliance" with all of the federal guidelines to ensure ads can easily be distinguished from organic search results.

"Amazon customers should be very conscious and examine closely when they do a search on Amazon whether they're getting an advertisement or an organic search result," said Marka Peterson, the SOC's legal director. "They should be very aware of the different methods that Amazon uses to obscure its advertising."

Amazon spokeswoman Tina Pelkey said in a statement that the complaint "misstates FTC guidance" and that ads in the company's store "always include a clear and prominent 'sponsored' label, implemented in accordance with FTC guidelines." washingtonpost.com

Amazon Outage Fallout
Amazon packages pile up after AWS outage spawns delivery havoc
An Amazon Web Services outage is wreaking havoc on the e-commerce giant's delivery operation, preventing drivers from getting routes or packages and shutting down communication between Amazon and the thousands of drivers it relies on, according to four people familiar with the situation.

Three delivery service partners said an Amazon.com Inc. app used to communicate with delivery drivers is down. Vans that were supposed to be on the road delivering packages are sitting idle with no communication from the company, the person said.

Amazon Flex drivers, independent delivery people who carry parcels in their own cars, can't log into Amazon's app to get assignments, said another person.

The problems come amid Amazon's critical holiday shopping season when the e-commerce giant can ill afford delays that could potentially create lasting log-jams.

AWS is the leading cloud-computing provider, selling companies computing power and software services on demand rather than maintaining their own data centers and teams in-house. Its customers include a wide range of industries and the federal government. detroitnews.com

Hedge fund pushes Kohl's to consider e-commerce spinoff

San Francisco, CA: 41-Year-Old Woman Charged 120 Times For Alleged Shoplifting, Arrested And Jailed Again
Aziza Graves, a 41-year-old woman, was arrested Saturday at Westfield San Francisco Center mall and was booked into jail on one count of petty theft, three local warrants, and one warrant in El Dorado County. Graves had been previously released on Nov. 24, six days after her arraignment for 120 alleged shoplifting incidents from the Stonestown Galleria Target store, totaling more than $40,000 from October 2020 to November 2021.  latintimes.com

Abbeville, SC: Arrest made in connection to nearly $100,000 in stolen goods
An Abbeville man faces multiple charges in connection to burglary that resulted in nearly six figures worth of items being stolen. On Oct. 29, 2021, the detective division of the Abbeville Police Department began investigating a burglary in which the victim advised he had nearly $100,000 worth of items stolen. Items that were stolen included several firearms, 20 guitars with cases, various other musical items, tools, jewelry and approximately 60 pairs of rare Nike shoes. Based on their investigation, detectives were able to identify a suspect as Rusty Trahan Jr., 37, of Abbeville. An arrest warrant was obtained for Trahan on Nov, 9. Officers took him into custody without incident. gueydantoday.com

Memphis, TN: DHL Warehouse worker charged with stealing $60,000 in Nike products
A Memphis woman is facing charges after police say she stole up to $60,000 in Nike merchandise from the DHL warehouse where she worked. Chamon Davis spent most of her days working inside a Fox Meadows warehouse. That all changed Tuesday when she was arrested. Davis is accused of printing duplicate tracking numbers for items that she didn't purchase and shipping it to different addresses. A police affidavit revealed that Davis was caught by Nike investigators. It's unclear how long the operation had being going on. Nike was able to recover up to $10,000 worth of merchandise that was set to be delivered Monday. wreg.com

Riverside County, CA: Apple store robbed of $18,000 worth of cell phones
Sheriff's investigators are looking for a person who stole cell phones valued at $18,000 from the Apple store in Temecula. The person entered the store at 40764 Winchester Road at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, carrying a bag and scissors and wearing gloves. The person removed 20 phones from a display counter and put them in a bag, a sheriff's news release said. "A witness attempted to intervene and the suspect subsequently brandished a handgun," the release said. The robber then fled the store. siliconvalley.com

Garden Grove, CA: Gun Store Window Smash Nets Thieves About 40 Firearms
Two suspects made off with approximately 40 firearms after the smash and grab burglary of a gun store, early Thursday morning. The burglary was reported at Whitten Sales, a gun store located in the 12800 block of Valley View Street, around 12:16 AM. Units arriving on scene discovered the front door of the business smashed open and determined a burglary had occurred. Initial reports indicate that two suspects smashed through the front door of the gun store before ultimately fleeing with approximately 40 firearms from a safe. countynews.tv

Troy, MI: Detroit man suspected of stealing nearly $8K in Target merchandise