Thieves were caught on security footage casually walking out of two separate retail outlets in California with more than $9,000 in stolen goods in tow.
In broad daylight, a group of brazen masked thieves was filmed storming into a Home Depot store on Spring Street in Signal Hill on August 27 and stealing $5,000 worth of power tools in full view of shocked staff and customers.
Employees in orange aprons could only watch in shock and did not engage with the masked thieves. Some workers decided to record the raid.
One of the thieves in a gray hoodie was seen wrestling a shopping cart from an employee while the others loaded a second one. He eventually got hold of it and pushed it toward the entrance with the help of one of his accomplices before turning back to walk outside with the second cart.
Four remaining thieves were seen picking up armfuls of power tools from a shelf before casually walking out. The unknown perpetrator in the gray hoodie was also seen returning and carrying three more boxes of items before jogging out of the store.
In a separate incident the next day, a man and a woman ransacked a Nordstrom store in Irvine Spectrum Center. Surveillance footage showed the pair strolling into the store before sprinting out with stolen items worth an estimated $4,000 and fleeing the scene in a white Kia Forte.
Retailers say thefts and organized retail crime are crisis-level in California
Retailers in California have been ravaged by increased crime and rampant shoplifting with critics blaming Democrat policies for enabling criminals to continually re-offend without fear of repercussions.
Uncontrolled looting in San Francisco has led to at least 96 retailers downtown closing down. Others have introduced measures to lock up items behind a glass to deter shoplifters.
Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in San Francisco's Union Square area, only 107 were still operating in July – a drop of 47 percent. Larceny thefts in San Francisco, which include retail thefts, fell significantly during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic but have been growing every year since.
A host of major chains, including Whole Foods, Brooks Brothers and Office Depot, have shuttered stores.
High-end retailer Nordstrom cut almost 400 jobs as it shut all its stores in San Francisco amid rising crime and a faltering economy in the city.
A San Francisco family-owned hardware store lost a staggering $700,000 in a single year to "organized shoplifting."
Dale Hardware’s owner Kyle Smith described the helpless situation in Fremont. Smith said his grandfather, who founded the shop in 1955, would "roll in his grave" if he knew about the unbridled shoplifting.
Remaining stores like Target have been reduced to locking up their entire stock behind glass to deter shoplifters.
The new security measures came after an employee revealed they were being shoplifted every 10 minutes. Multiple products, including shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes and food items, are now kept behind glass or Perspex barriers that require staff to open them.
There were 36,537 thefts last year and there have been 21,396 so far in 2023.
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