Brazen thefts at Connecticut stores coincide with rise in organized retail crime

Recent brazen thefts at Connecticut supermarkets and other stores coincide with a nationwide rise in organized retail crime.

The National Retail Federation reported that a majority of surveyed retailers say stores are getting hit more often and that thieves have gotten more aggressive and violent. Retailers cited changes in law enforcement and sentencing guidelines and the growth of online marketplaces as top reasons behind the increase, the trade organization reported.

Southington stores, in particular, have been targeted recently. On Tuesday at 11:54 p.m. at the Stop & Shop on North Main Street, two males and a female loaded a shopping cart with baby diapers and paper towels and walked toward the exit, police said.

When a manager asked if they had paid, one of the males shoved him to the floor, department spokesman Lt. Keith Egan said. The manager hit his head, but refused transportation to the hospital, Egan said.

The thieves left in a blue van with no plates. Police tried to pull the van over on Meriden Avenue, but the driver sped away and the officer did not follow, Egan said. Police throughout the state follow a policy of not chasing vehicles if larceny or other nonviolent crimes are suspected.

Southington police also are investigating the attempted theft of food valued at about $710 from a Shop Rite supermarket on Sunday. Confronted as she exited the store with a brimming cart-full of seafood and meat, the suspect threatened to stick a store worker with a hypodermic needle, police said. She eventually left without the goods.

On Oct. 7 at the BJ’s Wholesale Club on Spring Street in Southington, three males walked out of the store with multiple TVs and sound bars, and one thief pushed a store worker who approached the trio, police said. They sped away after loading the loot into a gold-colored Honda Odyssey that had been parked in front. Police say the suspects may be linked to thefts at other area BJ’s stores.

At Market 32 in Oxford Tuesday morning, thieves stuffed shopping carts with laundry detergent, toiletries and other items valued at $1,600, state police said. They loaded the items into two vehicles and took off. No one called 911 to report the incident, police said, giving the thieves about 10 minutes head start before someone called the resident trooper’s routine phone line.

Laundry detergent is a favorite target of organized retail thieves, the National Retail Federation reported. Other top items include designer clothing and handbags, allergy medicine, razors, high-end liquor, pain relievers, infant formula and teeth whitening strips.

The top five cities for organized retail crime, in order, were Los Angeles, San Francisco/ Oakland, Chicago, New York and Miami, the trade association reported. Video of blatant thefts from California stores, in particular, have been widely circulated.

As retail businesses suffered huge losses, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law in July that reestablished the crime of organized retail theft, which lawmakers first created in 2018 but allowed to lapse as of July 1. Prosecutors can seek to charge the crime as either a misdemeanor or a felony.

In Connecticut, a person commits organized retail theft when conspiring with at least one other person to steal property valued at more than $2,000 during a 180-day period. Violators are guilty of a class C felony if the take is $10,000 or more and a class D felony if the benefit is less than $10,000.

Gangs of professional boosters have been snatching racks of clothing and other items for years, but the National Retail Federation reports in its most recent survey of retailers that more lenient penalties and prosecution policies are fueling a rise in such crimes.

“Many states have increased the threshold of what constitutes a felony, which has had the unintended consequence of allowing criminals to steal more without being afraid of stronger penalties related to felony charges,” the trade association reported. “Nearly two-thirds of retailers report that they’ve seen an increase in the average ORC case value in these states.”

Police in Connecticut say store security also has changed.

In the 1990s, the approach to shoplifters was much more confrontational — abbreviated as “tackle and detain,” said Brian Foley, a 24-year veteran of Hartford’s police force and now an aide to state public safety commissioner James Rovella.

East Hartford police spokesman Josh Litwin said he could not speak about store policies, “but it is fair to say there have been fewer reports of physical confrontations between security personnel and suspected criminals over the years.”

“It seems,” Foley said, “as though those involved are completely aware of corporate policies and limitations of security staff at these stores, which prevent them from physically stopping anyone.”

At the same time, however, “losing a life for half a van-full of Tide,” he said, is not a good tradeoff.

A major driver in the retail theft increase across the nation is the ease of online sales of stolen goods, experts say. Ben Dugan, director of organized retail crime and corporate investigations at CVS Health, testified recently before the Senate judiciary committee that eBay, Amazon and other sites provide convenient marketplaces for hot items, Business Insider reported.

“The ease with which online sellers can open and close their sites, essentially undetected, is directly related to this increase in criminal activity in our stores,” Dugan told legislators, adding that an estimated $500 billion in illicit stolen and counterfeit goods are sold on third-party marketplaces each year.

Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com.