Home Depot Sounds the Alarm Over ORC Surge
Colorado bill takes aim at online marketplaces after stores sound alarm on crime

One expert estimates the overall cost of crime to Colorado businesses in 2020 was $27.49 billion.

Mike Combs, national director of investigations for The Home Depot, oversees a staff that’s expanded 180% in the past five years. But even that near-tripling of a division that once held a low profile at the chain is small compared to the growth of the size of thefts it investigates.

The criminal investigations team for the home-improvements retailer doesn’t get involved unless $100,000 or more of merchandise has been lifted from the store. Sometimes thieves sneak out fire exits or fake a self-checkout to avoid payment. But sometimes they plow their carts through the front entrance, either with speed or with aggressive threats of violence.

Combs said he has been watching the problem swell for more than half a decade now, long before smash-and-grab robberies in cities like San Francisco made headlines. And while crime in urban centers across the country is getting new attention after two years of pandemic-fueled decay, Combs notes that even suburban outposts in Colorado now are targets of organized retail crime.

“Losses are up. Organized retail crime is up,” he said of the local situation in Colorado, which mirrors trends seen across the country. “We already had to ramp up our investment in security … Now we’re investing in all facets to try to tackle it.”

A primary reason for the rise in such huge thefts is the ease with which thieves can resell stolen retail items on internet marketplaces with little to no oversight. Many of the thieves take the goods to middlemen who pay them and turn around to reap large profits, Combs said.

A bill, fashioned after a national model that’s yet to advance in Congress, would require online marketplaces to verify the tax-identification number, contact information and bank-account number for each high-volume third-party seller and require the sellers to disclose to consumers their names and addresses, as well as whether that seller used a different seller to supply consumers with the product. bizjournals.com

America's Theft Crisis
Shoplifting reaches crisis proportions
Shoplifting has gotten so bad nationally that chains like Rite Aid are closing hard-hit stores, sending terrified employees home in Ubers and locking up aisles of seemingly mundane items like deodorant and toothpaste.

Why it matters: Retailers are already reeling from the pandemic, supply chain woes and the labor shortage. Now they're combating systematic looting by organized crime gangs — which are growing more aggressive and violent.

"It's out of control — it is just out of control," Lisa LaBruno, SVP of operations and innovation at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, tells Axios. A lot of the uptick is tied to the ease of reselling stolen goods online, plus the fact that consumers are buying more everyday goods online during COVID.

"We have experienced a 300% increase in retail theft from our stores since the pandemic began." CVS spokesman Michael DeAngelis tells Axios.

Driving the news: The retail industry is pressing Congress to pass the INFORM Act, which would require online marketplaces (like Amazon, eBay and Facebook) to verify sellers and provide contact information to buyers. Attorneys general in states like California, Arizona and New Mexico are setting up anti-shoplifting task forces and looking at stricter laws on bail reform and felony thresholds.

District attorneys in cities like Chicago and New York are considering harsher measures against shoplifters.

What stores are doing: In addition to locking high-theft items behind anti-theft panels, retailers are arming more merchandise with alarmed security tags. They're installing shelf sensors that can tell when a customer has been browsing for a suspiciously long time, and adding "smart" shopping carts with wheels that lock if someone sneaks it past the cash register.

Yes, but: An analysis of crime statistics and other reporting by The Atlantic cast doubt on what it called the "great shoplifting freak-out," citing "fuzzy data" and asserting that what's being lumped together as shoplifting is actually a variety of violent crimes. axios.com

Shoplifting Up 50% at NYC's Largest Supermarket Chain
NYC grocery chain hiring dozens of burly security guards, retired cops to crack down on 50% spike in shoplifting

The chain's owner said he is sick of prosecutors like Manhattan's new DA Alvin Bragg not prosecuting criminals

New York's crime problem is so bad now that the head of the city's largest supermarket chain announced on Thursday that he is hiring extra security to crackdown on thieves, after a 50 percent spike in shoplifting that the woke Manhattan District Attorney is determined to ignore.

John Catsimatidis, owner and CEO of the Gristedes/D'Agostino's, told DailyMail.com that he has become so frustrated with the authorities doing nothing to solve the problem that he is taking it upon himself. He says he has noticed a 50 percent spike in shoplifting across his stores in the last year, costing him 'several million' dollars.

In an interview with DailyMail.com on Thursday, Catsimatidis said the thieves are not hungry homeless vagrants in need of meals or basic hygiene products, but are 'professional criminals' who often travel to New York City from other states where they wouldn't get away with the crimes.

Catsimatidis will hire dozens of retired NYPD officers and security guards to stand in the doorways of his stores and sit in cars parked outside to deter thieves. He was vague on if they would become physical with anyone attempting to shoplift, and said they'll do 'whatever they have to do' to protect customers and staff.

He blames bail reforms and the woke new policies of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg - who says he won't prosecute some crimes and will downgrade others - for the uptick in shoplifting.

Robberies have spiked 34.9 percent year-on-year, and petit larceny - which Bragg is now downgraded many of shoplifters' charges to - has risen by 23.3 percent in the same time period. Overall, crime is up a shocking 41.65 percent. dailymail.co.uk

Deadly Police Shootings Hit Record High
Fatal police shootings in 2021 set record since The Post began tracking, despite public outcry
Police shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue.

The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid a nationwide spike in violent crime — although nowhere near historic highs — and as people increasingly are venturing into public spaces now that coronavirus vaccines are widely available.

Despite setting a record, experts said the 2021 total was within expected bounds. Police have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people in each of the past seven years, ranging from 958 in 2016 to last year’s high. Mathematicians say this stability may be explained by Poisson’s random variable, a principle of probability theory that holds that the number of independent, uncommon events in a large population will remain fairly stagnant absent major societal changes.

That the number of fatal police shootings last year is within 60 of the average suggests officers’ behavior has not shifted significantly since The Post began collecting data, said Andrew Wheeler, a private-sector criminologist and data scientist.

Advocacy for policing overhauls has intensified since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. More than 400 bills were introduced in state legislatures last year to address officers’ use of force. Police departments increasingly partnered with mental health experts to respond to people in crisis. Cities established civilian review boards for use-of-force incidents.

None of it decreased the number of people shot and killed by officers last year. The total has increased slightly most years since 2015 — a pattern that Wheeler said may or may not signal that fatal shootings truly are trending higher. washingtonpost.com

RFID Tech Continues to Make National News
Op-Ed: The Wall Street Journal Extols RFID’s Benefits

The international newspaper this week reported on how the technology can provide insights into combatting retail theft.

I can remember, back in the mid-2000s, when RFID Journal's editor, Mark Roberti, would write about how frustrating it was that the mainstream press largely ignored what radio frequency identification technologies could do. That has changed in the years since, however, as illustrated by an article posted this week by The Wall Street Journal. Writer Isabelle Bousquette's piece, "Macy's Aims RFID at Organized Retail Theft," covered a recent RFID Journal virtual event, RFID in Retail and Apparel 2022, during which attendees learned how retailers are using RFID to become more agile and responsive in a competitive market.

Among those who spoke at the event was Joe Coll, Macy's VP of asset protection and strategy, who (in a session with Ned McCauley, Sensormatic Retail Solutions' director of sales, IoT and smart sensors) discussed how RFID has played a key role in optimizing inventory, enabling omnichannel processes, and confronting rising theft and brand insecurity. Coll outlined how the retail giant has used a sensor-fusion approach to combat organized retail crime and protect its personnel, customers, products, profits and brand—and The Wall Street Journal was listening as he did so.

"RFID plays a huge part for us from an investigative standpoint," Coll said during the virtual event, and Bousquette quoted him in her article, noting, "Strategies combating retail theft have become especially important during a surge in organized retail crime—incidents where items are stolen in order to be resold."

As Bousquette's article noted, Macy's is an early adopter that has been using RFID for years. RFID Journal, of course, has been covering the retailer's efforts since the beginning. But it's gratifying to see the mainstream press not only recognizing the value of RFID, but even attending RFID Journal events to learn more about it. It's a strong sign the industry is heading in the right direction. rfidjournal.com

Discouraging Retail Theft by Cracking Down on Online Marketplaces
Colorado lawmakers want to make it harder for retail thieves, porch pirates to sell stolen loot online
Colorado lawmakers want to discourage organized rings of thieves from stealing by making it harder for them to resell their loot via online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Craigslist and Facebook. A bipartisan bill pending in the legislature, HB22-1099: Online Marketplaces and Third-Party Sellers, would require people who sell large amounts of new items on the internet to register a slew of personal information with the online marketplaces.

People making more than $5,000 in sales or making more than 200 transactions over a 12-month period will have to register their bank account number, contact information and tax identification number with the marketplace, which will be required to verify the information. Sellers who make more than $20,000 through a marketplace must also disclose their full name, address and contact information to any customer after a purchase.

Rep. Terri Carver, a Colorado Springs Republican sponsoring the bill, compared the measure to the regulations placed on the brick-and-mortar marketplaces that used to be a common place to sell stolen goods: pawn shops.

“This is the modern-day equivalent of those rules,” she said Thursday at a hearing for the bill in the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee, where lawmakers approved it unanimously.

If a seller doesn’t comply, the marketplace must suspend their account. Marketplaces that do not comply with the law’s requirements could face lawsuits from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. denverpost.com

More Crime Closures in San Fran?
San Francisco losing another Walgreens store months after 'retail crime' shuttered five locations
Walgreens said Thursday it plans to close another store in San Francisco this month, four months after the company closed several in the city due to "organized retail crime," according to a report. The company didn’t cite crime as the reason for the forthcoming closure at the Kearny Street location in the city's downtown area. yahoo.com

(Update) NYC Rite Aid plagued by string of thefts finally closes its doors
A Manhattan Rite Aid that’s been plagued by a rash of shoplifting has shut its doors. The drug store, once a 24-hour location, was barren Thursday morning with photos showing empty, stripped shelves and no staff members in sight.

‘Barely holding on’ Queens business owners plead for help with decades-high theft levels

US: 79.3M Cases - 943.4K Dead - 49.8M Recovered
Worldwide: 412.7M Cases - 5.8M Dead - 333.3M Recovered

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

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 346  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 643
*Red indicates change in total deaths

The U.S. is Emerging from the Omicron Wave
COVID cases are plummeting, and deaths are slowing
New COVID cases are plunging all across America, and Omicron's death toll is also slowing down. The U.S. is on its way out of this wave of the pandemic after less than two months.

By the numbers: Nationwide, the U.S. is now averaging roughly 240,000 new cases per day — a 61% drop over the past two weeks. Maryland and Washington, D.C., have the lowest case counts in the country, each with fewer than 30 cases per 100,000 people, on average.

Oklahoma, meanwhile, saw the biggest improvement over the past two weeks, and is now sitting at an average of about 70 new cases per 100,000 people.

Deaths are still rising, but those increases are slowing down considerably — a sign that they may soon begin to decline. The U.S. is now averaging roughly 2,500 new deaths per day. Those deaths are almost entirely preventable, with vaccines. A smaller outbreak will also help save lives. axios.com

Walmart Loosens COVID Rules for Employees
Walmart drops mask mandate for 1.6M employees
Walmart said in a memo today it will no longer require fully vaccinated U.S. employees to wear masks at work. However, those who wish to wear a mask while working are permitted to do so.

Driving the news: New COVID cases are plunging and the U.S. appears to be on its way out of this wave of the pandemic after less than two months, Axios' reported. And NIAID director Anthony Fauci this week said the country is headed out of the "full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19."

Details: “Effective immediately, fully vaccinated associates will not be required to wear masks while working in any Walmart or Sam’s Club facility, unless required by a state or local mandate or ordinance," according to the memo.

The rule change impacts more than 1.6 million employees who work at Walmart or Sam's Club facilities and offices across the country. The company noted it would still observe state and local ordinances, and that employees working in its pharmacies and health clinics will still be required to mask up.

State of play: Walmart said daily health screenings will not be required of its employees as of Feb. 28, except for those in California, New York and Virginia. A policy that provided paid leave policy for COVID-19 related absences will end on March 31. axios.com

COVID Restrictions Ease from Coast to Coast
Some U.S. governors defend their mask policy changes to ‘get back to normal’
The governors of Maryland and New Jersey defended their moves to ease Covid restrictions, saying on Sunday that falling coronavirus cases in their states justified a change even as new cases and deaths remain fairly high in some regions of the United States.

“As best we can tell right now this thing is going from pandemic to endemic, and we feel it is the responsible step to take,” Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” referring to the stage when the virus will become a manageable part of daily life. He is one of several Democratic governors who announced plans to lift statewide mask mandates last week, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant loosens its grip on the United States.

According to many health experts, the pandemic’s next phase may depend on the emergence of new variants, vaccination rates and risk tolerance. Herd immunity to Covid, public health specialists say, is unlikely to be achieved. And scientists have cautioned that protection may wane over time, and future variants may be better able to sidestep our defenses.

Still, known coronavirus infections are falling across the United States, though case numbers nationwide have not dropped to pre-Omicron levels and remain high in states like Alaska, Mississippi and West Virginia. Hospitalizations and deaths are also on the decline, but remain elevated. nytimes.com
 
The Dangers of Vaccine Mandate Enforcement
McDonald’s security guard battered after diner refuses to show proof of vaccine
A McDonald’s security guard was battered Thursday morning after a diner refused to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination at a Near North Side location. At around 9:15 a.m., police responded to a McDonald’s location in the 0-100 block of East Chicago Avenue on the report of a battery.

Police believe a male was eating inside when an uniformed security guard, 47, asked the diner to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination due to the city’s ongoing mandate.

Instead of showing it, police said the male began battering the security guard. The suspect fled the scene but was located to responding officers and placed into custody. The security guard’s condition is not known at this time. wgntv.com

The Super Bowl Ushers in a Return to Pre-COVID Life
With Super Bowl ads, companies urge a return to prepandemic normalcy
Travel, autos, entertainment and grooming companies are trying to persuade Super Bowl viewers to get pretty and get out — in prepandemic style.

NY COVID cases drop to lowest level since Oct. 25, decline nationwide

Biden acknowledges frustration with Covid rules, but says lifting mask mandates is ‘premature’

Customs Broker Arrested for Tax Evasion and Scheme to Defraud Japanese Retail Chain Out of $3.4M
SANTA ANA, California – A customs broker was arrested today on a federal grand jury indictment charging him with evading the payment of $1.5 million in taxes and engaging in a $3.4 million wire fraud scheme that overcharged a Japanese variety store client on customs duties.

Frank Seung Noah, 59, of Corona, Noah owned and operated Comis International Inc., a logistics and supply-chain company based out of Cerritos, which offered customs import brokerage services on behalf of businesses. From 2007 to 2019, Comis was a customs import broker for Daiso, a Japan-based variety and value store with stores in the United States, including Southern California.

From March 2016 until February 2019, Noah – acting through Comis – paid customs import duty fees to U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Daiso’s behalf. Noah then allegedly submitted invoices to Daiso that fraudulently inflated the customs import duty fees that Noah had paid to CBP. As a result of Noah’s scheme, Daiso paid the inflated invoices, causing Noah to fraudulently obtain a total of at least approximately $3,379,774, the indictment alleges.

From 2014 to 2017, Noah allegedly cashed more than $7 million in checks instead of depositing the funds into his personal or business bank accounts to conceal his control over such funds.

If convicted of all charges, Noah would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the tax evasion count and 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count. justice.gov

Palo Alto, CA: With $500 worth of stolen bras under his clothes, a man is arrested at Stanford Shopping Center
Police say he and a woman, both from southern California, were part of organized retail theft operation and had $18,000 in goods in the car. A sharp-eyed Victoria's Secret worker at Stanford Shopping Center on Thursday helped to nab two people from southern California who police say stole $18,000 worth of merchandise from various stores in an organized retail theft operation. Shoplifting is considered "organized retail theft" under California penal code when merchandise is stolen from one or more retailers with the intent to sell, exchange or return the merchandise for value.

Palo Alto police at 6:43 p.m. on Feb. 10 received a call reporting in-progress shoplifting at the Victoria's Secret store at the shopping center at 180 El Camino Real, according to a department press release. A store employee told police a man was stuffing merchandise down his pants to conceal it as he appeared to shop with a female accomplice. Police said the pair then left the store without paying for the items and went to their vehicle. A store employee followed them. Police officers were able to detain the pair, a 59-year-old man from Van Nuys and 62-year-old woman from North Hollywood, in their vehicle without incident. Investigators determined the man shoplifted more than $500 worth of bras from Victoria's Secret.

Following a search of the vehicle, police located several trash bags filled with suspected stolen property. Police said there were almost 400 separate pieces of name-brand clothing from Express, Hollister and J. Crew valued at more than $18,000 recovered. Investigators are still working to determine where and when most of the clothing was stolen but have confirmed some was taken from a Victoria's Secret in Fresno on Feb. 8. almanacnews.com

Forest Lake, MN: Thief busts through wall of Forest Lake gaming store, steals $250,000 of Pokémon products
For the last year and a half, everything Pokémon has been a huge hit with customers at Punch Out Gaming in Forest Lake. "If it says Pokémon on it, it sells... Pokémon is literally the hottest thing right now," said Eric Johnson, who owns the store with his twin brother. Early Thursday morning, trading cards and games were flying off the shelves, but not in a good way. Caught on the gaming store's surveillance cameras, a thief broke into a vacant store next door to Punch Out Gaming and busted through the shared wall. "They broke through the walls, crawled through, and took all the sealed product out of there," said Johnson. Over the course of about two hours, they emptied out two entire storage rooms full of Pokémon products, but never opened the door that would have tripped the store's alarm system. After completing inventory, Johnson estimates they made off with $250,000 worth of merchandise. "He must have had help because there were a lot of boxes," said Johnson. fox9.com

Update: Washington teen charged after Burglarizing Ulta Beauty store, stealing $30,000 in merchandise
A Washington teenager has been accused of stealing almost $30,000 worth of goods from Ulta Beauty in late January. Demetrius L. Owens Jr., 19, has been charged with stealing $25,000 or more, a Class C felony, and second-degree burglary, a Class D felony. On Jan. 25, officers with the Washington Police Department responded to a burglar alarm at Ulta Beauty on Charlotte’s Way in Washington where they found a shattered front door and discovered that numerous bottles of cologne and perfume had been stolen, according to a probable cause statement filed by the police department. emissourian.com

Portland Man Faces Federal Charges for Stealing 47 Firearms from Pawn Shop
Kory Dean Boyd, 38, has been charged by criminal complaint with stealing firearms from a federal firearm licensee and illegally possessing firearms as a convicted felon.

Boyd and several accomplices used a sledgehammer to break into a local pawn shop and steal forty-seven firearms.

On January 31, 2022, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) were notified of a burglary at a Southeast Portland pawn shop. Early that morning, shop owners discovered two large holes in a concrete block wall on the building’s exterior and concrete debris littering the inside of the business. The room exposed by the holes contained dozens of firearms, 47 of which—including pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns—were reported stolen.

ATF agents reviewed exterior surveillance video from the pawn shop and observed two vehicles and five individuals present near the holes in the building during the late evening and early morning hours of January 29 and 30, 2022. Two individuals carried a large-handled tool believed to be a sledgehammer. Several other individuals were seen carrying long firearm cases to the vehicles.

Boyd was arrested without incident and admitted to his involvement in the burglary. Boyd’s four accomplices are still at large. 38 of the firearms stolen from the pawn shop have yet to be recovered by law enforcement. justice.gov

Roseville, CA: 3 Arrested After Dick’s Sporting Goods Smash and Grab Theft
Three people are in custody after stealing from a sporting good’s store and leading police on a chase in Roseville, police said Friday evening. According to the Roseville Police Department, the trio of thieves struck the Dick’s Sporting Goods store on Stanford Ranch Road and Fairway Drive. The suspects fled in a vehicle but authorities were able to catch up to them on Highway 65 near the Roseville Galleria. All three were stopped and taken into custody. Roseville police said the value of the items stolen is unknown at this time. sacramento.cbslocal.com

Update: Albuquerque, NM: Man stole $50K in sunglasses, warrant says
Authorities say a man stole more than $50,000 in sunglasses in 11 robberies over three months around Albuquerque, sometimes leading a duo or team of thieves during the brazen heists. Isaiah Martinez, 28, is charged with four counts of shoplifting between $500 and $2,500, seven counts of shoplifting between $2,500 and $20,000, and one count of battery. The state Attorney General’s Office issued a warrant on Tuesday for Martinez’s arrest. His criminal history includes arrests for shoplifting and drug possession, namely heroin, and more recently, fentanyl pills. According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court: Between October and November 2021, loss prevention officers from Luxottica, the parent company of Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters, identified Martinez as the man who had stolen “tens of thousands of dollars” worth of glasses from their stores when they found him selling the glasses on Facebook Marketplace. “Following this identification, Martinez continued to commit theft after theft,” according to the affidavit. Between Oct. 31 and Jan. 27, agents documented 11 robberies allegedly committed by Martinez, most of them at the Sunglass Hut at Coronado Center. abqjournal.com

Update: Boston, MA: Police seize some 50 dirt bikes, ATVs at self-storage place following investigation into bike smash-and-grab
Boston Police report seizing "approximately 50 dirt bikes and other all-terrain vehicles" at Roslindale Self Storage, 44 Lochdale Rd. on Friday. The Attleboro Sun-Chronicle reports investigators were led to the dead-end storage place as part of an investigation into a burglary at a motor-bike shop in Seekonk on Feb. 2. Some guys smashed in the front windows of the shop, then stole a number of dirt bikes, all valued at around $10,000 each. universalhub.com

Nashville, TN: Officials arrest man for stealing over $1,000 of copper wire from The Home Depot

Macon County, IL: Police seek to identify man in Menards retail theft case