“The weak economy has pushed consumers to look for better prices.  Organized retail crime groups capitalize on that desperation.”  This quote from Joe Larocca, a Senior Advisor to the National Retail Federation summarizes the fuel for organized retail theft operations.  Shoppers have been conditioned to look for a deal and the thieves steal highly desirable, easily resold items.   Consumers are not actively seeking stolen goods, but the appetite for low prices has spurred demand.  Items most targeted are jeans, batteries, baby formula, pain killers and electronics.

A customer denied helping steal a pricey exotic bird from a Naperville, IL pet store.  She said she didn’t know anything about stolen birds.  Just so happened, police inspected her purse and found several feathers that matched the bird and some bird seed.  “Ohhhhhhh, THAT bird!”  Now that’s what we in the loss prevention biz call - your evidence.  The incident was also captured on the store's security cameras. 

Shoplifting seems to be theme of the week.  Two articles in my local newspaper on the same day caught my eye.  The first was two guys that stuffed merchandise into backpacks while 60 police officers were in the store helping 155 children pick out clothes and school supplies for the annual “Shop With a Cop” event.   Evidently their theory was the officers would be too distracted to notice.  What they also counted on was the store security personnel also being distracted.  They weren’t.  Both went to jail charged with theft.