Police warn of organized retail thefts

The Lincoln City Police Department is urging local businesses to be watchful for organized retail theft suspects.

“These types of thefts are happening all over the state and are a growing concern to all retail business,” LCPD Lt. Jeffrey Winn said.

The Lincoln County Leader first reported earlier this month of such a crime and the arrest of two suspects. In that case, a witness alerted police to suspicious activity at the Lincoln City Outlets where several occupants of a minivan were making multiple trips into the stores with empty retail bags and returning with full bags over a short period of time, and changing their own clothing between trips to the stores.

“Officers recognized this as being consistent with several recently reported instances of organized retail theft with matching descriptions of the suspects involved,” Winn said.

Two California men were arrested during the investigation and pursuit. Other suspects were able to elude police. As of late last week, no additional arrests had been made in that investigation.

What to watch for

Winn said the organized retail thefts are carefully conducted.

“Two to four suspects go into the business, with one of the subjects acting as a lookout, or who may engage the employee or employees,” Winn said. “That gets the employees focused away from the others, allowing those suspects to conceal items in bulky clothing or shopping bags they may carry with them, and they then quickly exit the business.”

Winn added that the subjects also watch for when the business’s employees are helping with other uninvolved customers, so the employee’s attention is diverted away and that allows the suspects to conceal the merchandise without being detected.

“The persons involved in these types of thefts are very organized and are difficult to spot by the employees,” Winn said. “If an employee suspects that thefts are occurring they should call the police and report it immediately, however, the employees generally have to follow the policies of the business regarding making contact and trying to stop the suspects who are stealing.”

Often retail theft does not get discovered until after the suspect or suspects are long gone, and because businesses have different policies about dealing with theft, Winn said there is a lot of retail theft that never gets reported.

“These theft organizations generally target places that have a large assortment of high-value merchandise and are busy with people coming and going all the time,” he said. “In addition, they look for businesses that do not have a lot of employees working as that would increase the chances of being observed while in the act of stealing.”

The outlet mall in Lincoln City is one of the locations that has the high-value retail outlets, as well as several other businesses, which makes it a prime target for retail theft organizations, according to Winn.

The suspects

Generally, those involved in organized retail thefts that LCPD encounters are from out of the area, however, retail theft in general happens all the time and can involve local people as well as people from out of the area, according to Winn.

“The theft charges involved generally depend on the value of the stolen merchandise — the higher the value of the merchandise, the higher the level of theft charged,” Winn said. “When talking about organized retail theft, the value can be quite high, so first degree theft charges, which are felony charges, would occur, as well as charges of conspiracy to commit theft charges, which is a misdemeanor.”

Prevention

Winn said stopping the organized retail theft can be a partnership between police, store operators and employees, and the community as a whole.

“As in the case of this last organized retail theft, it is citizens and store employees seeing suspicious activity and reporting it to law enforcement in a timely manner that helps us catch the involved criminals,” Winn said.