ORGANIZED RETAIL THEFT
New Initiative to Tackle the Problem
04/06/07
These thieves waltz into a department store…fill
up a cart with expensive medicines, DVDs,
baby formula, or other high-cost items…then
walk right out the door without paying for
it by slipping past security or using other
deceptive techniques.
It’s called organized retail theft,
and it’s a $30 billion to $37 billion
a year crime problem, according to industry
estimates.
“The overall price tag is more than
burglary, larceny, robbery, and auto theft
combined,” says Supervisory Special
Agent Brian J. Nadeau, program manager of
the Organized Retail Theft Program at FBI
Headquarters. “These aren’t shoplifters
taking a pack of gum. These are professional
thieves. This is their day job.”
These thieves—called “boosters” —can
make good money for their efforts, Nadeau
said. They typically are paid 30 cents on
the dollar for stolen goods. In some cases,
they haul off $5,000 to $10,000 worth of merchandise
each time they leave a store. The same team
might hit several stores in a day and the
same store once a month. A really good professional
thief can make between $100,000 and $200,000
a year.
Boosters waste no time. They
get in and out stores quickly because they
know what they want. In fact, they’re
often given a shopping list by their “fences”—people
who buy their goods. Then, they get out of
Dodge fast. “They can be in the next
jurisdiction or across state lines by the
time local police arrive to take a report,” Nadeau
says.
More on fences. Street-level
fences typically buy from a couple different
boosters, pay in cash or drugs, and sell the
merchandise in their own discount stores,
at flea markets, or through online auctions.
Some sell to higher-level fences who repackage—or
scrub—the goods and pawn them off on
retailers at prices that undercut legitimate
distributors. Ironically, some stolen merchandise
can actually make its way back on to the shelves
of the chain store where it was stolen, Nadeau
says.
Besides the huge financial toll retail theft
takes on the industry—which leads to
higher consumer prices—there are safety
issues, too. Some stolen products—including
baby formula and medicine—have expiration
dates that are altered before being resold.
Some products may be stored incorrectly and
go bad. In some cases, boosters approached
in the store may even turn violent.
Tackling the problem. We’ve
worked retail theft issues for years, in concert
with industry and law enforcement partners.
Now, a groundbreaking new database will help
our collective efforts.
The database—called the Law
Enforcement Retail Partnership Network,
or LERPNet—is
available to participating retailers and law
enforcement through a secure Internet portal.
It was developed in partnership with the Retail
Industry Leaders Association and the National
Retail Federation. To date, more than 32 retailers
representing 46,000 stores have signed on.
The network will provide a uniform way of
tracking retail theft, improve information
sharing, and help tie rings to multiple crimes.
It will also enable retailers and law enforcement
to see if there are patterns in geographic
areas and in types of merchandise taken or
even if boosters prefer to hit at a particular
time of day.
“Organized retail theft is a huge problem.
Thankfully, we’ve got a huge network of
partners to tackle it together,” Nadeau
says.
Link to our Partners:
- National Retail
Federation
- Retail
Industry Leaders Association
- Food Marketing
Institute
