A guy walks into a home improvement store carrying a suitcase.
What sounds like the opening for a dad joke is how authorities say a 25-year-old Brooklyn man stole nearly $9,000 in electrical items at two home improvement retailers earlier this year.
Three times Noe Zapata entered Home Depot stores in Bensalem and walked out with merchandise including one trip where he allegedly used luggage to hide his haul, police said.
Zapata is one of hundreds of retail theft suspects that Bensalem police have identified through its recently expanded campaign aimed at reducing and preventing retail thefts.
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Last year businesses reported almost 900 incidents of retail theft, which is more than double since 2019, when 484 were reported, Director of Public Safety William McVey said.
Bensalem’s post-pandemic theft rate aligns with a trend seen across Pennsylvania, where retail theft reports are up 30% statewide, McVey said.
Suspects are also becoming more brazen, he said. They bring plastic shopping bags (or luggage) to fill up or pile merchandise into shopping carts and wheel it past security.
Also not unusual is for suspects to hit the same retail store repeatedly.
Philadelphia resident Richard Santana Aponte allegedly visited the same Giant supermarket on Street Road 11 days in a row in March and walked out with items totaling more than $3,300 before he was arrested recently.
A 30-year-old Philadelphia man was recently charged with stealing nearly $2,000 worth of items, mostly Lego sets over several months from the Bensalem Target.
Popular and high-end items that can be resold on the black market are what most shoplifters target, McVey said.
His department has seen people stealing batteries from drug stores and clearing Red Bull drinks off shelves. One suspect attempted to steal two garbage bags with high-end sneakers.
Many suspects who police end up identifying — like Zapata who is awaiting extradition from New York City — live outside the county, and the state, and they may be part of a larger theft network, McVey said.
Police found a list of Kohls locations in the phone history of an out-of-state woman arrested for attempting to leave a Bensalem Kohls with a suitcase filled with expensive perfume, McVey said.
While Bensalem has a high clearance rate for retail thefts — 60% are caught and prosecuted —McVey believes deterrence is equally important.
What is "Bensalem Secure" and how is it addressing retail thefts
The police department, township Economic Development Corporation and local business owners launched “Bensalem Secure,” a task force focused on reducing retail theft in the township and region.
The effort kicked off earlier this year and provides local business owners with free theft-deterrent resources, workshops and information sharing.
As part of the task force strategy, McVey has assigned more traffic enforcement in areas with high incidents of retail thefts to serve as a visible presence.
The department is also pushing out more surveillance videos and photos on social media to encourage community involvement and tips on suspect identities. Frequently suspected shoplifters are repeat offenders wanted in other communities, McVey said.
Most recently Bensalem started posting online a weekly list of retail theft arrests including the names, stores, amounts and mug shots on its social media accounts and Crimewatch pages.
The first three lists contained 33 names with amounts allegedly stolen ranging from $20 to more than $1,000. The majority of thefts occurred at Target, Home Depot, Boscov’s, Wawa and Walmart, according to the list.
The public exposure of suspected shoplifters is part of the township’s zero tolerance policy, McVey said.
“We are willing to arrest anyone who steals. We wanted that message out there,” McVey said. “People can’t be this brazen to think they can load up a grocery store cart, or luggage and walk out and think they have no consequences.”
Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com
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