CVS partners with AGs to curb retail crime: Thieves 'not being prosecuted, and they need to be'



CVS recently announced that it is partnering with law enforcement agencies and attorneys general to curb surging organized retail crime, Fox Business reported.

On Wednesday, CVS CEO Karen Lynch told "CBS Evening News" that the chain pharmacy store is doing all it can to crack down on shoplifting, stating that thieves have been "ripping through the entire counter."

Lynch stated that a lot of items in the store are locked up because burglaries have been a problem for the retailer. In 2022, American retailers lost approximately $112.1 billion to shoplifters, according to a National Retail Security survey.

"Organized retail theft is a big problem," she added. "They're coming in; they're clearing shelves off, and then reselling [the items]. What I'm most concerned about is the safety of our colleagues and the safety of our customers."

Over the last couple of years, the retailer has rolled out additional safety measures, Lynch noted.

"We're working very closely with law enforcement and with attorneys general because they're not being prosecuted, and they need to be," she continued. "I actually had a video the other day where it was late at night and a car went through our front door."

Lynch explained that the video showed a vehicle driving through the front door of one of the pharmacy locations. Six males then jumped out of the car and "ransacked the entire CVS."

A CVS spokesperson referred to the retailer as a "national leader in the fight against [organized retail crime]," Fox Business reported.

"We partner with federal, state, and local law enforcement — as well as with other retailers — to identify and dismantle these criminal operations," the CVS representative said, noting that the retailer has already successfully dismantled dozens of large criminal organizations.

CVS stated that it supports the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, a new bipartisan bill that would enhance coordination between law enforcement agencies. If passed by lawmakers, the measure would create a federal Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center.

David Johnston, the National Retail Foundation vice president, told Fox Business, "We have to take a really good look at what got us here. And there are a lot of things that got us to this point, some of them inclusive of individual states making changes to how they react to shoplifting."

Johnston called for "appropriate consequences" for individuals caught stealing from retail establishments.

In January, a CVS location in Washington, D.C., announced that it would close its doors, likely due to the area's retail theft problem, despite staffing armed security guards. A CVS spokesperson told WTOP that the retailer is working with law enforcement agencies to "identify and dismantle several major shoplifting rings."

CVS revealed plans in 2021 to close 900 store locations over a three-year period, citing "local market dynamics, population shifts, and a community's store density." The closure represents almost 10% of all its locations in the United States.

Common items in CVS stores nationwide are increasingly being locked up due to a rise in burglaries. CVS CEO Karen Lynch says "it\u2019s a problem" and tells @NorahODonnell that the company is implementing new safety measures in response.\n\nSee more tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET on the CBS\u2026
— (@)

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Gov. Newsom pulls a Karen when Target employee blames him to his face for shoplifting epidemic: 'Where's your manager?'



California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) admitted on Wednesday that he once asked for a Target employee's manager because that employee blamed him for the shoplifting epidemic.

Speaking on a Zoom meeting with California mayors, Newsom recounted what he called "my Target story." One time while in a Target checkout line, Newsom said he witnessed a man leave the store without paying for merchandise. When he confronted a Target employee about the incident, that employee blamed him.

"I said, 'Why didn't you stop him?' She goes, 'Oh, the governor.' Swear to God, true story, on my mom's grave. 'The governor lowered the threshold, there's no accountability,'" Newsom recalled.

"I said that's just not true. I said we have the tenth-toughest — $950 — the tenth-toughest in America," he continued. "She said, 'Well, we don't stop them because of the governor.'"

The employee, Newsom explained, eventually realized she was speaking with the very person whom she had blamed. Newsom alleged the employee then asked him for a photograph, but he denied the request. He explained:

I’m like, "No, I'm not taking a photo, we’re having a conversation. Where's your manager? How are you blaming the governor?" And it was, you know, $380 later, and I was like, “Why am I spending $380 when everyone can walk the hell right out?"
— (@)

It's true that Newsom isn't directly to blame for California's epidemic of organized retail theft.

But Newsom, as recently as December 2021, publicly defended Proposition 47, a law passed in 2014 that reduced some non-violent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. For shoplifting specifically, stealing goods with a property value below $950 was recategorized as a misdemeanor.

After Prop 47 passed, California experienced an increase in non-violent crimes like shoplifting and larceny. And when California cities began electing far-left prosecutors with aversions to prosecuting low-level offenders, shoplifting went relatively unchecked and allowed organized retail theft to flourish.

To his credit, Newom is now trying to mitigate some of the problems Prop 47 has caused, but he has stopped short of asking voters to reconsider the law.

Still, the irony is rich. California Democrats for years supported lowering the penalties for low-level crimes likes shoplifting. But when they witness such crimes or become victims of crime themselves, suddenly it becomes a real-life problem for them.

"Shoutout to this store clerk for saying to the governor’s face what every Californian has wanted to say: that he and his radical @CA_Dem buddies are to blame for CA’s surging crime," said California Republican Party Chair Jessica Millan Patterson.

"Sadly, Newsom still didn’t seem to take the hint," she added.

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Top CNN analyst says the quiet part out loud about far-left criminal justice reform after mass riots in Philly



The top law enforcement analyst at CNN admitted Wednesday that progressive criminal justice reform is wreaking havoc on cities and driving up crime.

Philadelphia police arrested dozens of people late Tuesday into early Wednesday after large, organized groups of rioters — whom interim police Commissioner John Stanford called "criminal opportunists" — terrorized the city's downtown area. A second night of mass looting erupted on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

According to CNN chief law enforcement analyst John Miller, the situation in Philadelphia is endemic of a larger problem striking Democrat-controlled cities.

That problem, Miller said, is that looters exploit protests using "sophisticated communications networks" to organize mass crime sprees. They are emboldened by progressive criminal justice reform that seeks to decrease the penalty for property crimes, he explained, suggesting that "the litmus test" for such reform is to see where organized property crime is occurring.

"You are seeing this kind of looting happening — I mean shoplifting and organized retail theft happen — in places like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia," he observed.

"If you look at where Target closed nine stores yesterday — four stores in San Francisco, stores in Seattle, stores in Portland, stores in New York — these are places where bail reform laws, criminal justice reforms have taken the inside of a jail cell out of the equation," Miller explained. "So shoplifting is a crime where a judge can't set bail."


To prove his point, Miller cited data from New York City.

"Think about this: In New York City there are just over 300 people who have between them 4,000 arrests; 70% of them are not in jail, and they account for 30% of all shoplifting in New York. This is actually their job. They go out to steal every day," he said.

"And that has gone up significantly because they know getting put in jail is not in the equation any longer because of the laws that say 'it's a no-bail offense' and DA's policies are they don't want people in custody for what they call nonviolent crimes," he explained.

The end result of such criminal justice reform policies, Miller said, is that criminals realize it "is just like shopping without money."

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Honest Democrat admits a decade-old 'big mistake' as California battles organized retail theft: 'Enough is enough!'



A California Democratic lawmaker is expressing regret for supporting a law that ultimately made it more difficult to prosecute theft and drug crimes.

San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa supported Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot referendum that downgraded several nonviolent felony crimes. The referendum — which passed with nearly 60% approval — made shoplifting, grand theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, fraud, and writing a bad check a misdemeanor crime if the value of the stolen or fraudulent amount is less than $950.

On Tuesday, Canepa declared his support for Prop 47 a "mistake."

"I thought it was a good idea at the time because I thought [that] we need to give people an opportunity, we need to give people a chance," Canepa said, according to KPIX-TV.

"I made a mistake, it was a big mistake, and you have to acknowledge your mistake," he admitted. "By doing this, what we've done is we're letting people take thousands and thousands of dollars. And why should people be subjugated?"

San Mateo County supervisor outlines new proposals to combat organized retail theft www.youtube.com

At this month's board of supervisors meeting, Canepa will propose creating a law enforcement task force to help tackle organized retail theft, which is a growing problem nationwide.

San Francisco and Los Angeles, though, have been hit particularly hard with incidents of retail theft.

In 2022 alone, retail theft cost U.S. businesses nearly $100 billion in lost revenue. In San Mateo specifically, shoplifting last year spiked "60% higher than the pre-pandemic average," KGO-TV reported.

"Enough is enough! All this retail theft, all this sort of crime. Enough is enough," Canepa said. "We really need to look at state laws. What we have in place right now is not working."

Nearly 10 years ago, supporters of Prop 47 claimed the law would lower incarceration rates for nonviolent offenders and alleviate California's overcrowded prisons. But it took only a few years before the chickens came home to roost, resulting in a sharp uptick in retail theft that was blamed on Prop 47. Now, California has a retail theft problem that has proven nearly impossible to stop.

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Dick's Sporting Goods reports eye-popping profit crash due to 'organized retail theft': 'Quite alarming'



Dick's Sporting Goods disclosed Tuesday that quarterly profits plummeted nearly 25% after the retail chain became a target of "organized retail theft."

The Pennsylvania-based company said that second-quarter profits dropped 23%, despite sales revenue increasing 3.6% over the same time period.

Last year, Dick's Sporting Goods reported a net income of $319 million in the second quarter. This year, profit amounted to only $244 million in the second quarter.

"Our Q2 profitability was short of our expectations due in large part to the impact of elevated inventory shrink, an increasingly serious issue impacting many retailers," CEO Lauren Hobart said in a statement.

As CNBC explained, inventory "shrink" refers to the "difference between inventory [retail stores are] supposed to have on their balance sheets and their actual inventory." The word thus "captures the loss of inventory from a variety of factors, including employee theft, shoplifting, administrative or cashier error, damage or vendor fraud."

Dick's Sporting Good's, in fact, specifically listed "organized retail crime and our ability to effectively manage inventory shrink" among the reasons why their second-quarter profit was lower than forecasted.

"It's quite alarming what's going on," Hobart said on a conference call Tuesday.

Retail theft has become a serious problem nationwide, especially in cities that generally do not prosecute "minor" thefts. According to the National Retail Federation, shrink has become an approximately $100 billion problemper year — and it's only getting worse.

The dismal profit news came one day after Bloomberg reported that Dick's Sporting Goods laid off 250 corporate employees. The company reportedly plans to use the freed up overhead to hire employees in other areas of the business.

After news of Dick's Sporting Good's profit decline broke on Tuesday, the company's stock tumbled 24%. Moreover, retail analyst Neil Saunders told Retail Dive that problems for Dick's Sporting Goods may only get worse if company leaders do not figure out how to stop the thefts.

"In our view this is a particular issue for Dick’s as many of the products it sells are desirable and have good resale values," Saunders explained. "While the problem is not one of Dick’s making, management does not seem to have any immediate solutions to the problem which could, if left unchecked, continue to weigh down on the bottom line."

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'Fed-up' cities are passing laws to combat brazen organized retail theft: 'The situation is out of control'



Some cities are passing their own laws in order to combat an epidemic of brazen organized retail thefts across the country that have led to some stores shutting down.

In one example from the King Soopers grocery store in Brighton, Colorado, two thieves were caught on video on Monday loading up a grocery cart with detergent and other high-price items before running for the exit.

The video shows a security guard and one bystander try to stop the couple, but a black male fights back and they escape after tossing all their ill-gotten goods into a car.

The male had allegedly brandished a screwdriver and threatened, "You'll have to shoot me or give me my stuff. I'll stab you if you don't give me my stuff."

These kinds of incidents are pushing local lawmakers into passing laws to strengthen the law enforcement response to such robberies, according to a report from CBS News.

"The situation is out of control," said Mayor Mike Coffman of Aurora. The city has passed an ordinance that would put people in jail for three days if they are found guilty of stealing more than $300 in merchandise.

"There's a rising anger about that," Coffman continued, "and the feeling is they're not just stealing from the store, they're stealing from everybody."

He went on to say that the new law was a response to the state legislature lessening penalties for theft.

"When somebody is an habitual criminal and behind bars, those days they are not creating new victims, not stealing from our stores," said Coffman.

"The message of this ordinance is, 'Aurora is fed up,'" he added. "Aurora is gonna be tough on crime."

Property crime in the city has dropped 13.9% over the same period from last year.

In the city of Westminster, a new law will target car crimes, including joyriding, street racing, and catalytic converter theft.

"Don't do a crime in Westminster. We want you to know we are going to hold you accountable if we catch you breaking the law in Westminster," said David DeMott, the mayor pro tem of the city. He also claimed the new law was a response to weakened resolve at the legislative level.

In the King Soopers theft, police said they were able to make an arrest after they pulled over 20-year-old Zola Diandwakila in a stolen car. Diandwakila was given a $5,000 bond over the stolen merchandise that was estimated to be worth about $600. Police said they are still seeking to identify the woman involved in the robbery.

Here's the local news report from CBS Colorado:

Arrest made in King Soopers shoplifting case: video viewed by thousands www.youtube.com

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Gavin Newsom Doesn’t Mention Crime Once When Asked Why Businesses Are Fleeing San Francisco

'Rezoning and rebirth and reimagination'

Woman interferes with arrest of robbery suspect who escapes. Cops wrestle woman to ground, arrest her — and now she's looking to talk to a lawyer.



After a woman interfered in the arrest of a robbery suspect in San Jose, the suspect managed to escape from cops — and with that, police turned on the woman, wrestling her to the ground and arresting her.

And believe it or not, the woman says she's filing a complaint against police and will speak to an attorney.

What are the details?

Police said an organized retail crime mob had just robbed the Macy's at the Oakridge Mall on Saturday night, but two store security guards detained one of the suspects, KNTV-TV reported.

However, investigators told the station other suspects returned and "violently" beat up one of the guards, according to Sgt. Christian Camarillo of the San Jose Police Department, who said they "pulled her hair" and "punched her" and "kicked her in the head."

'Heartbroken' bystander helps crook

But after arriving officers handcuffed the robbery suspect, a "heartbroken" woman identified as Abeer Hamed decided to get involved, KNTV said.

Hamed, in red plaid shirt, approaches police who have detained robbery suspectImage source: KNTV-TV video screenshot

“You just see two cops running toward him like crazy," Hamed recounted to the station, adding that police "just pushed him to the glass and throw him to the ground, like really slammed him hard. For me seeing this as a mother, I was like heartbroken.”

Cellphone video shows officers repeatedly telling Hamed to back off, KNTV said.

Image source: KNTV-TV video screenshot

And while cops began dealing with Hamed, police said the robbery suspect got away.

One might say she paid for the decision.

Image source: KNTV-TV video screenshot

Image source: KNTV-TV video screenshot

“He slammed me really hard to the ground," Hamed told KNTV of the officer who went after her while she showed her bruised face to a video camera — along with her scraped elbow that she said "really hurts badly, too."

Image source: KNTV-TV video screenshot

Police spokesman Camarillo didn't seem sympathetic, as he told the station "that female who inserted herself in that situation was subsequently arrested for aiding the escape of a person who was lawfully detained by a police officer, assault on an officer, and delaying an officer as well."

Hamed, 43, also allegedly resisted by swinging an arm at an officer, police told KPIX-TV, which added that Hamed was booked into Santa Clara County Jail.

Filing complaint? Talking to lawyer?

Despite what certainly appears to be an obvious error in judgment, Hamed told KNTV she's planning to file a complaint and talk to a lawyer.

Police told the station they welcome the scrutiny — and Camarillo emphasized how serious Hamed's actions were: “It took one person inserting themselves into this situation that allowed a suspect to escape."

He added to KGO-TV that "arresting this one suspect could've helped our investigation to identify the rest of these folks. That didn't happen, obviously, because this one person interfered with this arrest. We still don't understand what caused this person to go over there and interfere. If somebody sees something that they don't agree with or thinks is excessive, there's mechanisms for that, right? We have our internal affairs department, we have our internal police auditor. Please, please do not insert yourself into one of these arrest situations."

Walgreens, retail org fire back at AOC for dismissing growing problem of organized retail theft



Pharmacy retail giant Walgreens punched back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) last week after the far-left progressive lawmaker dismissed rampant theft happening in retail stores nationwide.

What did AOC say?

During an interview with the Washington Times, Ocasio-Cortez downplayed the growing problem of smash-and-grab thefts and organized retail crime.

"[A] lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out," Ocasio-Cortez said. "I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up."

However, a recent New York Times story on the growing problem of retail theft directly contradicts what Ocasio-Cortez said.

Theft is an ever-present issue for retailers. As much as $68.9 billion of products were stolen from retailers in 2019, according to one industry group. But it has become more visible, brazen and violent in recent months, forcing an industry already buffeted by pandemic lockdowns and fights over mask requirements to deal with a new problem.

“This level of violence has taken it to a whole new level,” said Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association. “No one has seen this before.”

The New York Times attributed the surge in theft to online marketplaces, which make it easy to sell stolen goods, the rampant violence of summer 2020 that followed the murder of George Floyd, and poor enforcement of existing laws.

What was the reaction?

Politicians, retail organizations, and even Walgreens responded to Ocasio-Cortez's claims.

Contrary to what Ocasio-Cortez, Walgreens told the Washington Times that "organized retail crime is one of the top challenges facing" the retail giant. In fact, the problem "has evolved beyond shoplifting and petty theft to the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods online," evidence of organized retail theft, Walgreens said.

Walgreens additionally said that theft at its stores in San Francisco has become such a problem that security costs at Walgreens stores in San Francisco are now 46 times greater than the average Walgreens store.

Meanwhile, Jason Brewer, senior executive vice president of communications of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said Ocasio-Cortez "has no idea what she is talking about."

"Both the data and stack of video evidence makes fairly clear that this is a growing problem in need of solutions,” Brewer told the Washington Times. “If she is not concerned with organized theft and increasingly violent attacks on retail employees, she should just say that."

In fact, the National Retail Federation continually finds that organized retail crime is a growing problem that won't go away.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) similarly called Ocasio-Cortez's remarks "tone-deaf and offensive" to the family of an Oakland security guard who was murdered while protecting a TV news crew during a robbery.