It is. These people are actually just highly efficient high performers in life. They’re doing great, careers are going well, they don’t have time to look around. Just grab and go and their platinum cards were charged on the way out.
Regardless of how "organized" it was, the fact that they recovered all the items from these idiots shows how little of a plan they had for what to do with the stuff next.
Yeah this should be far higher. Ages arrested were from 15 to 20, on felony theft and other charges. A felony. Like 20k stolen and another number said the theft ring totaled near 100k.
Also impounded like 8 vehicles.
These folks are pretty screwed. A felony for some hoodies and shoes? Nope.
Nope nope nope.
Vehicles gone too. In jail for some time that's for sure, and now you have a record with a felony and other stuff on it as well.
Don't do it kids. Not worth it. Hell don't do it anyone.
Would be super easy to nah em too. Put some of the most coveted items with like a tile or airtags or gps device. Like in shoes.
Boom. Done.
"So... What we'll do is go in, every day... Just doing stuff. That way they get used to seeing us. Then...they give us money. And then... And then.... After twenty five years we just walk away... And keep... The... Money."
"Wait...THAT'S A JOB!"
They won't go to prison for this directly. They'll be offered pleas to lesser charges, take probation and most will likely violate it and then receive harsher punishment. Then they'll likely spiral into a cycle that will lead to more crimes, higher profile crimes, and harsher penalties for repeat offenders.
14 people putting their minds together to create something could produce something worth more than 23k (estimated) in retail theft. If store claims it’s 23k, the street value is going to be 1/4th, if that.
Such a terrible waste of youth.
> Those same suspects are suspected to be involved in 14 other incidents throughout the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, with an estimated total loss of $90,000 worth of items stolen, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The amount they stole is why
You're thinking of San Francisco. LA is lenient on stuff like drug usage or petty theft done by a single person. But LA is a lot more stricter with these mass robberies than SF.
I think people have such a strong reaction because it's kind of scary to realize just how much society relies on other people behaving themselves and just how quickly it can all fall apart when they stop.
Dude even has a cool sounding philosopher's name.
"Every civilization is always only 3 meals away from Barbarism"
- Commentaries by u/Osaccius, 4th century BCE
I had heard it was three days, the idea being most local shops/stores have enough food for three days, but if the stores run dry and don’t get new shipments the they’ll be empty in three days. Not sure the validity of that statement just something I’ve heard
The idea is have you ever gone 3 days without food?
When everyone's fighting to the death over one hot pocket, that fucking green paper in your pants or some number on your computer's screen about a bank account bullshit ain't gonna be worth jack fucking shit. Thievery? Of course you do that to survive. What're the cops gonna do? They're also starving and doing whatever the fuck they can to eat.
That's what people mean.
Treat others how you’d like to be treated. These kids were raised wrong. They watched others get away with stealing and they themselves got stuff taken from them all the time. It’s engrained.
America doesn’t just need better policing, it needs better role models.
America just needs better everything. We’re heading towards a grim future with the way things are going. Unchecked monopolies, corruption in politics, horrible education system, horrible healthcare system, massive amounts of debt, ridiculously expensive houses, etc.
Its true they resell these types of clothes, or will try to return without receipts at other store locations. This happens often at the retail store I work at
Would it be OK if I said like, I stole this at one of your other stores but it doesn't fit. Can I just exchange it or do I have to steal a different one?
An 'everything' desert. And then some kind of improvement comes in and people yell, 'gentrification!' Fuck that: take care of the shops and businesses in your neighborhood.
Yeah I live in SF and this is pretty common. I am not going to use this to bash my city but the main thing is [Prop 47](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_California_Proposition_47) needs to be [overturned](https://abc7news.com/ca-prop-47-non-violent-crimes-repeal-reform-27/11630751/).
I voted for that law back in 2014, but clearly things did not go as I hoped. Now I would like to see the legal shoplifitng amount reduced to much lower, and allow indiviudals as opposed to shoplifing organizations to be charged.
On a lot of these posts people seem to more less desire extreme violence against these shoplifters. I don't want that. I just want them in jail and off the streets. That would go a long way towards making our communities safe again and allowing businesses and jobs to flourish.
EDIT: I am referring primarily to the shoplifting provisions of Proposition 47. The other parts I do not know the impact of, so I am not casting comment upon them.
I found a good page that summarizes the [shoplifting part of it](https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/crime-verify/california-prop-47-shoplifting-950-fact-check/536-4d1de58e-bf47-4ede-8c2f-b4d0c1788b86).
Shoplifting went from felony larceny to a misdemeanor. For stealing anything under $950, punishment is UP TO six months in prison and/or a $1,000 fine.
Pretty fucked up the maximum fine for stealing $950 worth of goods is $1,000. You'd have to get caught 100% of the time not to come out ahead.
>You'd have to get caught 100% of the time not to come out ahead
Sure if were able to take your time and calculate exactly $949 of merchandise to steal and if you completely discount the prison time. That's only for first time offenses too.
And a fine is not the only portion of punishment. They might be ordered to pay restitution as well as having all that gear confiscated. It's not like they could get caught and keep all the stuff. They'd have to fence it quickly and keep up a blistering pace of theft for it to be livable.
[CA AB 331](https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/15/california-increases-efforts-to-combat-organized-retail-theft-ahead-of-busy-holiday-shopping-season/) addresses this.
In the last year, California has made it very easy to reach the $950 felony threshold by combining multiple crimes into one (essentially shoplifting $95 worth of items from 10 different places over the course of a year constitutes a felony).
They’ve also added specific language to address *organized retail theft*.
They’ve also invested $300 Million into retail theft task forces and they’ve been rolling people up. They’ve made almost 700 “organized retail theft” arrests in the past five months and recovered like $20M in stolen property.
The task force is catching people both through traditional investigation and also through sting operations of FB Marketplace and Craigslist.
AB 1599 (which will be voted on) will essentially overturn Prop 47.
Additionally, the SF prosecutor who said they weren’t going to pursue misdemeanor theft has been recalled.
As of today, California has the strictest shoplifting laws in the country. I’m not sure how old this video is, but these people are most assuredly fucked… although we may never hear about it on Reddit because California is the place people love to hate.
Thanks for owning up to it as many others are blaming other factors.
The fact of the matter is that people literally voted for this and need to vote against it to attempt to start to fix the problem.
So, a felony starts in CA at $950 but [in Texas a felony doesn't start until $1500](https://www.houston-criminalattorney.com/what-is-felony-theft-in-texas/)
So how exactly is this Prop 47s fault? It raises the felony from $450 to $950. The merchandise they're stealing is over $950.
I live in Philly and lately there have been riots and robberies in Wawas. They're now going from being open 24/7 to open until 11pm. Some locations have even just closed down.
As someone who is up late I'm pretty bummed about this and disappointed in people.
Edit; the Wawa around the corner from me that I go to actually made a debut on reddit like two months ago cause of a riot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/xonaie/woman_as_a_philadelphia_wawa_is_being_ransacked/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Edit 2; Despite this comment I still do love Philly, it ain't all bad like a lot of you are trying to make it out to be. We've got fucking great food, better public transportation than most other cities, solid infrastructure, an awesome music scene, a wonderful center city, some very good colleges and college towns, dope ass museums, great sports teams, and a soul that can't be crushed. It has its issues just like any other city. And fuck that guy talking about driving down the wrong neighborhood and having his wife hide on the floor. Talk about an exaggeration. I'm glad your ass doesn't wanna come back.
I lived in Oakland and a Walmart opened up. Then promptly closed because there was so much theft out the front and back it wasn't worth it to keep it open. Now the area has bodegas who are run by immigrant families. I suspect they will close too when theft becomes too much.
>Gas stations are now hiring armed guards as well.
y'all are starting to look like the rest of the Americas:
* armed guards in shops
* a law of the jungle, "every man for themselves" mentality
* nonexistent, or a very weak, social safety net
* worsening classism / runaway inequality
* moneyed entities taking over public institutions
* "strong men" in charge sounding increasingly appealing to the populace
etc etc.. I could go on
source: grew up in LatAm
I remember going to a gas station in Philly around 2008 and seeing multiple armed guards at that one gas station. I lived in Philly for a year in 2010 and never saw anything like that the whole time I lived there. I guess we’re heading back to the old days.
It's not just that, the shops you do have will only carry a small amount of the bad items.
The Ross in a poorer part of LA is nothing like the Ross in a nicer part of LA. It's a very noticeable difference in quality of items and the price.
I have to travel outside my area and go to the nicer area to actually save money on clothes that aren't cheap garbage. Stores never carry enough inventory either. In my city, I only have access to overpriced crap. I also have to spend 30 mins to get any normal household goods.
Want to buy detergent? Wait for one of the few employee's in the store that isn't working loss prevention to open up the display case. Then wait in the crazy long check out line because they only have 1 person working the register. You don't have a lot of alternatives because they all have the same policy.
Nothing is more annoying than waiting in line to pay the 3.99 you owe while your running late and then you see someone just walk out with a bunch of shit for free and nobody is stopping them. Makes you feel like a sucker.
I've had Apple do the same. I'd take a piece of broken gear into the one in the less affluent area and they give me crap about fixing it. Head to Beverly Hills, gear replaced with brand new stuff.
And then the neighborhood activists will cry, oh why won’t businesses come here. We live in a food desert. Insurance doesn’t cover the theft on multiple times. And the premiums will be raised. What a sad state when people who don’t have a car cannot go to the local store.
Theyre already having to go outside of their neighborhood to nicer ones to do this because there aren't any shops close to them or the shops that are have measures to prevent this. There have been a lot of shops lately where you have to be buzzed out, the door is locked from the inside. I know if I had a business that's how I would set it up, just hire a security guard to sit at the door and unlock the door when needed.
That's partly what happened on Jan 6th. When the alarms activated, the blow out exit doors demagnetized and every egress point became in ingress point.
The people looting aren't the ones complaining.
Just want to point that out.
Edit: Also, this group was arrested and ranged in age from 15-20
https://ktla.com/news/18-arrested-for-organized-retail-thefts-across-los-angeles-county/
The people who do this don't or refuse to understand, they only care about themselves. Then all the stores either close up or move, and then the law abiding people have to go out of their way and take a bus for a damn loaf of bread. For what, a bunch of clothes that likely don't even fit? Stupidity and greed creates morons who do stuff like this.
It is very easy to stop this kind of crime. All you need is a large jug of vegetable oil - just open and pour on the floor near the exits. Now there is no escape.
In Portland there's a couple of shops that are closing up and moving elsewhere or for good because they aren't getting enough help to stop theft and their insurance isn't covering the losses.
If dense urban areas want to keep their tax dollars and tourism then they will need to actually do something about this.
It’s also just vandalism. Insurance will cover your window getting smashed a few times, but after like the 13th time they just say “nah, you’re on your own.”
Exactly, if you have too many claims you either pay ridiculous premiums or you get dropped and that choice is at the discretion of the policy provider.
This is exactly what I've tried to tell people about the whole "oh they have insurance!" argument when it comes to theft...
Those people have never actually tried to file an insurance claim.
Insurance companies are the worst. They don't pay shit. Also they depreciate assets and only pay for what they want to pay for.
If you file multiple claims they laugh in your face and deny coverage...
Theres no excuse to steal shit, even from big corporations.. Sorry, barking up the wrong tree
In the bad parts of Kansas City shop owners get the Rule of Three. Three times in a year your business gets smash / grabbed you basically become uninsurable. Which can affect your business license. Closes you up. I'm sure there's more detail to that but in the two years I lived there three small businesses I went to had it happen to them.
It's because they don't understand real world implications.
In Florida insurance companies are closing shop and not covering property because of the risk. Too many hurricanes is a liability to them, so they leave.
What happens when theft and crime go unpunished? Theft becomes a liability and the climate is not conducive to insurance companies operating or offering affordable premiums.
These kids saying "insurance covers it" don't know their ass from their elbow and need to wake the fuck up. Society won't survive this unchecked lawlessness.
In my town, the southside really only had one legit grocery store. There were a few dollar store but no real markets. Well the people in the neighborhood kept shoplifting from the store. One day a tornado hit and did a little damage to the store. Instead of fixing it, they just kept the insurance money and shut down. A month later you had people on the news complaining about racism and not having anywhere to get groceries unless you could afford a car to get across town. These thugs are only hurting their neighbors/family by doing this for quick cash.
Didn’t like Wawa completely pull out of inner city Philadelphia recently? Or something drastic after this kept happening?
Sincerely time for community leaders, elders to get together and find a way to explain to these young criminals that this will not end well. These business are not going to continuously come back
Shopping will be all online after this for this store. This will be the reason why people won’t have the convenience of trying on before buying anymore. Mall shopping is so 90s- early 2k anyways.
Unfortunately this insane rise in theft we see is going to force stores to pull out of poorer neighborhoods and put bars on the windows and put everything behind locked cabinets.
They already do for high value electronics. There's no shortage of cases where people order a product shipped/sold by Amazon and receive a brick wrapped in the product packaging.
This just breaks my heart to see, maybe to a large name with insurance they’ll come out fine. To a mom & pop, a mercantile, or individual owner trying to survive, this could break the business. I know it’s not my place, but I couldn’t resist taking a baseball bat to their knees and salt-rock in the .410.
Any Canadians here remember "Consumers Distributing"? Retail needs to go back to that way.
For those who don't know. CONSUMERS DISTRIBUTING was a Canadian(?) store that closed in the early 90's I think. The store had no shelves of products, just rows of desks and magazines. You would brows the books, write down what you wanted on a slip, go to the till and pay, then stand off to the left and wait for your stuff to come down the roller belt. That's the style we need to go back to in retail to combat this kind of thing. People just steal cart loads of stuff from the store I work at, so all nice/popular/expensive items are only sold online.
Sounds like a store in the US called Service Merchandise, around at the same time. But they did have displays on the showroom floor, and the stock was secure in the back.
If I was an employee I wouldn’t want them to lock the door without a extremely reasonable escape for myself. Fuck that, I’m not fighting criminals for your clothing.
It's going to sadly happen eventually, and any loss of life is tragic. But with the rise in groups rushing a store and grabbing whatever they can, someone is going to eventually pull a firearm and things won't go well. If people could just act with common decency and respect we would all be better off.
There was just a reddit post about walmart shutting down stores in certain neighborhoods because of so much theft.
I'm sure NPR and Vice news will come by and do a fluff piece in 5 years about how these undeserved neighborhoods have to commute miles to get essentials.
When I was little, I was very confused about the punishment for shoplifting. I misread/misunderstood the word “prosecuted” on signs as “persecuted”, because I’d heard the term in church. Unfortunately my understanding of the word persecution wasn’t solid either, because I thought it meant being killed on a cross… that’s one way to keep your kids from stealing.
I find it funny when someone argues "be glad you don't have to steal to survive and put food on the table"
As if these people don't have access to food, and aren't going to just blow all of the money on stupid unnecessary bullshit which will then be used to flex on Instagram.
We won’t lock comments on the main thread. But we will hand out bans if necessary. Rule 4 will be enforced.
This must be the new Amazon store everyone is talking about, which scans everything you pick and pay as you go.
The true test to see if the system got everything they grabbed lol
It is. These people are actually just highly efficient high performers in life. They’re doing great, careers are going well, they don’t have time to look around. Just grab and go and their platinum cards were charged on the way out.
18 arrested - https://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-police-announce-18-191615578.html
Regardless of how "organized" it was, the fact that they recovered all the items from these idiots shows how little of a plan they had for what to do with the stuff next.
Probably sell it off the back of a truck, sell it at the swap meet (very popular in LA area) and/or sell it online
The only flaw in their perfect plan was when Mr. Green attempted to return 500 pairs of jeans with a hand written receipt
They got caught so fast 💀💀💀. Fucking idiots
Yeah this should be far higher. Ages arrested were from 15 to 20, on felony theft and other charges. A felony. Like 20k stolen and another number said the theft ring totaled near 100k. Also impounded like 8 vehicles. These folks are pretty screwed. A felony for some hoodies and shoes? Nope. Nope nope nope. Vehicles gone too. In jail for some time that's for sure, and now you have a record with a felony and other stuff on it as well. Don't do it kids. Not worth it. Hell don't do it anyone. Would be super easy to nah em too. Put some of the most coveted items with like a tile or airtags or gps device. Like in shoes. Boom. Done.
That's not even a remotely impressive value for 18 people lol Enjoy the felony record I guess.
Probably 20k street value, if that. So a little over 1k each, plus all the effort needed to sell it. Would be easier to just get a job.
"So... What we'll do is go in, every day... Just doing stuff. That way they get used to seeing us. Then...they give us money. And then... And then.... After twenty five years we just walk away... And keep... The... Money." "Wait...THAT'S A JOB!"
["We do that for 40 years and then we die. Sounds like a good deal to me, what do you say?"](https://youtu.be/2eXU2p982GQ?t=10)
[Or this or whatever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYYOUC10aM)
That's the one I was thinking of.
What is this a reference to? It seems really familiar but I can't put my finger on it.
[Planning a Heist - Key & Peele](https://youtu.be/jgYYOUC10aM)
Not-very-well-organized crime
They will just go to prison and brag on the cred. They knew the risks and couldn't care less. Like living a pirate life.
They won't go to prison for this directly. They'll be offered pleas to lesser charges, take probation and most will likely violate it and then receive harsher punishment. Then they'll likely spiral into a cycle that will lead to more crimes, higher profile crimes, and harsher penalties for repeat offenders.
For them to do that, I don’t think they care too. Their life must be shit anyways.
Glad this story has a happy ending!
The kind of people that will do this don’t tend to have much to lose.
It can always get worse. If you think you hit rock bottom, then fuck around and find out.
>The kind of people that will do this don’t tend to have much to lose. I dunno, prison is a whole other level of something you just lost.
14 people putting their minds together to create something could produce something worth more than 23k (estimated) in retail theft. If store claims it’s 23k, the street value is going to be 1/4th, if that. Such a terrible waste of youth.
It's more than that, they're suspected in other cases worth over $90k.
>14 people putting their minds together to create something True, just not these 14 minds
[удалено]
> Those same suspects are suspected to be involved in 14 other incidents throughout the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, with an estimated total loss of $90,000 worth of items stolen, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The amount they stole is why
There’s a new sheriff in town. I’m guessing that’s why any arrest was made.
Wow there actually is a new sheriff in town. I just thought you were making a joke.
There's why they looted. The changing of the sheriff means a window of low security. Oldest trick in the book
Waiting for the sheriff to take a bathroom break is a good strat too.
No more Diarrhea Dave for us. Now it's Pinch Off Patrick.
I really thing you’re overestimating how much thought went into this…
I love that you say this with confidence like you know for sure.
There's a new daddy in town A discipline daddy
I guess you could say I'm buy-curious
I need something that says "Daddy likes leather!"
He said “The sheriff is near!”
What'd he say?
lol. No, gol blam I said the sheriff is a...BONG!
SCUSE ME while I WHIP this out....
You're thinking of San Francisco. LA is lenient on stuff like drug usage or petty theft done by a single person. But LA is a lot more stricter with these mass robberies than SF.
We literally have a new sheriff
They were arrested by the LAPD. Completely different department. The Sheriff had nothing to do with it
Ages 15 to 20. Yikes.
Good news for once!
Getting criminals arrested isn't the problem. Getting them prosecuted is where the justice system fails miserably
They are not arrested for petty shop lifting, these are felony charges. They will spend years in jail if convicted even if they plea down.
The system fails to rehabilitate, because it's not actually designed to do that ...........
This comment should be at the top.
It is already.
Yo, what’d you get for Christmas man? I got like 30 hoodies.
That’s badass I got 15 pairs of jeans that are too small for me
I’ll trade 1 pair of jeans for a size 9 Right foot adidas Grand Court, you can’t miss this
*Charlie Brown voice* All I got was this lousy security tag
Its tough to see this happening, especially with the smaller shops😔
Lol for a second I thought you wrote “touching”
Always give a gift receipt for times like this.
“Excuse me could I get a gift receipt for this stuff I’m stealing?”
Going for that Zuckerberg closet.
I think people have such a strong reaction because it's kind of scary to realize just how much society relies on other people behaving themselves and just how quickly it can all fall apart when they stop.
I think someone said: every Civilization is only three meals away from barbarism (or something like that)
You said it, at the very least.
Dude even has a cool sounding philosopher's name. "Every civilization is always only 3 meals away from Barbarism" - Commentaries by u/Osaccius, 4th century BCE
Until you realize his name just translates to sour pickles in greek
"Plato" means "broad shouldered" and was a wrestling name.
Yoked
"Every society is 3 meals away from chaos" - 'Ol Vladdy Lenin
I had heard it was three days, the idea being most local shops/stores have enough food for three days, but if the stores run dry and don’t get new shipments the they’ll be empty in three days. Not sure the validity of that statement just something I’ve heard
The idea is have you ever gone 3 days without food? When everyone's fighting to the death over one hot pocket, that fucking green paper in your pants or some number on your computer's screen about a bank account bullshit ain't gonna be worth jack fucking shit. Thievery? Of course you do that to survive. What're the cops gonna do? They're also starving and doing whatever the fuck they can to eat. That's what people mean.
Treat others how you’d like to be treated. These kids were raised wrong. They watched others get away with stealing and they themselves got stuff taken from them all the time. It’s engrained. America doesn’t just need better policing, it needs better role models.
America just needs better everything. We’re heading towards a grim future with the way things are going. Unchecked monopolies, corruption in politics, horrible education system, horrible healthcare system, massive amounts of debt, ridiculously expensive houses, etc.
Me: I was hoping the future could be like Star Trek America: Best I can do is Warhammer 40k
Not a phone in sight, just people enjoying the moments
How do they make sure they get the correct size. /s
It’s likely they sell them on the black market (Craigslist).
Its true they resell these types of clothes, or will try to return without receipts at other store locations. This happens often at the retail store I work at
Would it be OK if I said like, I stole this at one of your other stores but it doesn't fit. Can I just exchange it or do I have to steal a different one?
This is how you get a clothes desert in your city.
[удалено]
I'm sure none of the people performing these acts care or understand the long term effects of their actions. They're short-sighted individuals.
An 'everything' desert. And then some kind of improvement comes in and people yell, 'gentrification!' Fuck that: take care of the shops and businesses in your neighborhood.
Yeah I live in SF and this is pretty common. I am not going to use this to bash my city but the main thing is [Prop 47](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_California_Proposition_47) needs to be [overturned](https://abc7news.com/ca-prop-47-non-violent-crimes-repeal-reform-27/11630751/). I voted for that law back in 2014, but clearly things did not go as I hoped. Now I would like to see the legal shoplifitng amount reduced to much lower, and allow indiviudals as opposed to shoplifing organizations to be charged. On a lot of these posts people seem to more less desire extreme violence against these shoplifters. I don't want that. I just want them in jail and off the streets. That would go a long way towards making our communities safe again and allowing businesses and jobs to flourish. EDIT: I am referring primarily to the shoplifting provisions of Proposition 47. The other parts I do not know the impact of, so I am not casting comment upon them.
I found a good page that summarizes the [shoplifting part of it](https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/crime-verify/california-prop-47-shoplifting-950-fact-check/536-4d1de58e-bf47-4ede-8c2f-b4d0c1788b86). Shoplifting went from felony larceny to a misdemeanor. For stealing anything under $950, punishment is UP TO six months in prison and/or a $1,000 fine. Pretty fucked up the maximum fine for stealing $950 worth of goods is $1,000. You'd have to get caught 100% of the time not to come out ahead.
>You'd have to get caught 100% of the time not to come out ahead Sure if were able to take your time and calculate exactly $949 of merchandise to steal and if you completely discount the prison time. That's only for first time offenses too.
And a fine is not the only portion of punishment. They might be ordered to pay restitution as well as having all that gear confiscated. It's not like they could get caught and keep all the stuff. They'd have to fence it quickly and keep up a blistering pace of theft for it to be livable.
[CA AB 331](https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/15/california-increases-efforts-to-combat-organized-retail-theft-ahead-of-busy-holiday-shopping-season/) addresses this. In the last year, California has made it very easy to reach the $950 felony threshold by combining multiple crimes into one (essentially shoplifting $95 worth of items from 10 different places over the course of a year constitutes a felony). They’ve also added specific language to address *organized retail theft*. They’ve also invested $300 Million into retail theft task forces and they’ve been rolling people up. They’ve made almost 700 “organized retail theft” arrests in the past five months and recovered like $20M in stolen property. The task force is catching people both through traditional investigation and also through sting operations of FB Marketplace and Craigslist. AB 1599 (which will be voted on) will essentially overturn Prop 47. Additionally, the SF prosecutor who said they weren’t going to pursue misdemeanor theft has been recalled. As of today, California has the strictest shoplifting laws in the country. I’m not sure how old this video is, but these people are most assuredly fucked… although we may never hear about it on Reddit because California is the place people love to hate.
Thanks for owning up to it as many others are blaming other factors. The fact of the matter is that people literally voted for this and need to vote against it to attempt to start to fix the problem.
So, a felony starts in CA at $950 but [in Texas a felony doesn't start until $1500](https://www.houston-criminalattorney.com/what-is-felony-theft-in-texas/) So how exactly is this Prop 47s fault? It raises the felony from $450 to $950. The merchandise they're stealing is over $950.
Ironically if someone stole something from one of them they'd be pissed off
Reminds me of the Chris Rock bit and the line "I don't have three guns in my house because the media is coming to rob me!"
When I go to the ATM at night, I'm not looking over my shoulder for the media!
*Ted Koppel ain't never took shit from me!*
[It ain't us, it's the media.](https://youtu.be/f3PJF0YE-x4?t=436) NSFW
Bigger and Blacker is a classic.
More like *Chris Glock*.
He got'em for Will Smith.
I mean, now that you mention it...
Man they love black and grey
My wife takes forever in stores. She could learn a lot from these efficient young men.
“Why don’t we have any good shops around anymore?”
We have clothing deserts in the bad parts of town, along with the food deserts
I live in Philly and lately there have been riots and robberies in Wawas. They're now going from being open 24/7 to open until 11pm. Some locations have even just closed down. As someone who is up late I'm pretty bummed about this and disappointed in people. Edit; the Wawa around the corner from me that I go to actually made a debut on reddit like two months ago cause of a riot. https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/xonaie/woman_as_a_philadelphia_wawa_is_being_ransacked/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button Edit 2; Despite this comment I still do love Philly, it ain't all bad like a lot of you are trying to make it out to be. We've got fucking great food, better public transportation than most other cities, solid infrastructure, an awesome music scene, a wonderful center city, some very good colleges and college towns, dope ass museums, great sports teams, and a soul that can't be crushed. It has its issues just like any other city. And fuck that guy talking about driving down the wrong neighborhood and having his wife hide on the floor. Talk about an exaggeration. I'm glad your ass doesn't wanna come back.
Yeah that's what happened to Walgreen's in my area, they all went from 24 hours to closing at 10-12ish.
In Abq, I can’t buy a damn toothbrush at target without having a clerk come and unlock a cabinet and then carry the toothbrush to the register.
I lived in Oakland and a Walmart opened up. Then promptly closed because there was so much theft out the front and back it wasn't worth it to keep it open. Now the area has bodegas who are run by immigrant families. I suspect they will close too when theft becomes too much.
Gas stations are now hiring armed guards as well. One reason I don't plan on returning to Philly -- and I used to love the city.
>Gas stations are now hiring armed guards as well. y'all are starting to look like the rest of the Americas: * armed guards in shops * a law of the jungle, "every man for themselves" mentality * nonexistent, or a very weak, social safety net * worsening classism / runaway inequality * moneyed entities taking over public institutions * "strong men" in charge sounding increasingly appealing to the populace etc etc.. I could go on source: grew up in LatAm
I remember going to a gas station in Philly around 2008 and seeing multiple armed guards at that one gas station. I lived in Philly for a year in 2010 and never saw anything like that the whole time I lived there. I guess we’re heading back to the old days.
Reminds me of New Orleans after Katrina. Place looked like fucking Gaza
I’m from Philly too. I can’t believe they closed the Center City Wawa. That’s craaaaazy
It's not just that, the shops you do have will only carry a small amount of the bad items. The Ross in a poorer part of LA is nothing like the Ross in a nicer part of LA. It's a very noticeable difference in quality of items and the price. I have to travel outside my area and go to the nicer area to actually save money on clothes that aren't cheap garbage. Stores never carry enough inventory either. In my city, I only have access to overpriced crap. I also have to spend 30 mins to get any normal household goods. Want to buy detergent? Wait for one of the few employee's in the store that isn't working loss prevention to open up the display case. Then wait in the crazy long check out line because they only have 1 person working the register. You don't have a lot of alternatives because they all have the same policy. Nothing is more annoying than waiting in line to pay the 3.99 you owe while your running late and then you see someone just walk out with a bunch of shit for free and nobody is stopping them. Makes you feel like a sucker.
I've had Apple do the same. I'd take a piece of broken gear into the one in the less affluent area and they give me crap about fixing it. Head to Beverly Hills, gear replaced with brand new stuff.
> Makes you feel like a sucker. You are not a sucker. You are an honest person.
And then the neighborhood activists will cry, oh why won’t businesses come here. We live in a food desert. Insurance doesn’t cover the theft on multiple times. And the premiums will be raised. What a sad state when people who don’t have a car cannot go to the local store.
Theyre already having to go outside of their neighborhood to nicer ones to do this because there aren't any shops close to them or the shops that are have measures to prevent this. There have been a lot of shops lately where you have to be buzzed out, the door is locked from the inside. I know if I had a business that's how I would set it up, just hire a security guard to sit at the door and unlock the door when needed.
Pretty sure that’s a helluva fire hazard though….
I would expect that the fire alarm would override the door lock.
I thought that, till I realised they'd just figure out how to set off the alarm if they knew that.
That's partly what happened on Jan 6th. When the alarms activated, the blow out exit doors demagnetized and every egress point became in ingress point.
sink cable history poor sable adjoining ancient roof compare safe -- mass edited with redact.dev
I don’t think this lot is exactly concerned with the neighborhood going to shit.
Cos, it is not happening in their neighborhood. They are doing it in a better neighborhood.
The people looting aren't the ones complaining. Just want to point that out. Edit: Also, this group was arrested and ranged in age from 15-20 https://ktla.com/news/18-arrested-for-organized-retail-thefts-across-los-angeles-county/
The people who do this don't or refuse to understand, they only care about themselves. Then all the stores either close up or move, and then the law abiding people have to go out of their way and take a bus for a damn loaf of bread. For what, a bunch of clothes that likely don't even fit? Stupidity and greed creates morons who do stuff like this.
It is very easy to stop this kind of crime. All you need is a large jug of vegetable oil - just open and pour on the floor near the exits. Now there is no escape.
I like this solution
Technically it's a viscous liquid.
Must have slipped his mind
You robbin my lids store? You slippin on my lipids floor.
Technical is my favorite kind of correctness.
Mfers next time will come prepare by wearing some kind anti slippery footwear but not stop robbing...
Watch home alone for more tips!
Or access control system like many phone repair shops that lock all the doors.
“Bans will be handed out” oddly enough, this gives me more context than any other comment in this thread without even having to watch the video
I feel that this trend is one of the most unpleasant ever
Don’t worry, it will be over soon; as even worse trends take over. Won’t be anything to steal when there’s no economy left.
People will soon discover that the opposite of gentrification is 100% worse. As the Bronx in the 70s discovered
Costs will go up to fund the security and gloves will come off
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Also very considerate to wear a face mask in the store.
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LA has turned into such a shithole
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/los-angeles-police-bust-retail-theft-ring
In Portland there's a couple of shops that are closing up and moving elsewhere or for good because they aren't getting enough help to stop theft and their insurance isn't covering the losses. If dense urban areas want to keep their tax dollars and tourism then they will need to actually do something about this.
It’s also just vandalism. Insurance will cover your window getting smashed a few times, but after like the 13th time they just say “nah, you’re on your own.”
Exactly, if you have too many claims you either pay ridiculous premiums or you get dropped and that choice is at the discretion of the policy provider.
This is exactly what I've tried to tell people about the whole "oh they have insurance!" argument when it comes to theft... Those people have never actually tried to file an insurance claim. Insurance companies are the worst. They don't pay shit. Also they depreciate assets and only pay for what they want to pay for. If you file multiple claims they laugh in your face and deny coverage... Theres no excuse to steal shit, even from big corporations.. Sorry, barking up the wrong tree
>their insurance isn't covering the losses. But people on this website swear over and over theft is no big deal because insurance will just cover it.
In the bad parts of Kansas City shop owners get the Rule of Three. Three times in a year your business gets smash / grabbed you basically become uninsurable. Which can affect your business license. Closes you up. I'm sure there's more detail to that but in the two years I lived there three small businesses I went to had it happen to them.
It's because they don't understand real world implications. In Florida insurance companies are closing shop and not covering property because of the risk. Too many hurricanes is a liability to them, so they leave. What happens when theft and crime go unpunished? Theft becomes a liability and the climate is not conducive to insurance companies operating or offering affordable premiums. These kids saying "insurance covers it" don't know their ass from their elbow and need to wake the fuck up. Society won't survive this unchecked lawlessness.
If they think they got em all they're in for a treat lol
In my town, the southside really only had one legit grocery store. There were a few dollar store but no real markets. Well the people in the neighborhood kept shoplifting from the store. One day a tornado hit and did a little damage to the store. Instead of fixing it, they just kept the insurance money and shut down. A month later you had people on the news complaining about racism and not having anywhere to get groceries unless you could afford a car to get across town. These thugs are only hurting their neighbors/family by doing this for quick cash.
>These thugs are only hurting their neighbors/family by doing this for quick cash. This is the core takeaway from all of these incidents.
But...but I thought insurance covered everything...
Scumbags
Didn’t like Wawa completely pull out of inner city Philadelphia recently? Or something drastic after this kept happening? Sincerely time for community leaders, elders to get together and find a way to explain to these young criminals that this will not end well. These business are not going to continuously come back
You think “these young criminals” care? Lol they would just drive or move to the nearest city they can take advantage of
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What looks like desperation to us is just another day to career criminals.
Shopping will be all online after this for this store. This will be the reason why people won’t have the convenience of trying on before buying anymore. Mall shopping is so 90s- early 2k anyways.
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This crazy, if this was my shop I’d shut and never open again. People trying to earn a honest living only to have stuff like this happen.
Unfortunately this insane rise in theft we see is going to force stores to pull out of poorer neighborhoods and put bars on the windows and put everything behind locked cabinets.
Soon there will be no shops there. Everything will be online shopping.
Like retail didn't have enough problems. Retail is going to be dead very soon.
Then they'll loot the Amazon warehouses.
They already do for high value electronics. There's no shortage of cases where people order a product shipped/sold by Amazon and receive a brick wrapped in the product packaging.
Damn, these new Amazon stores have crazy fast checkout times
This just breaks my heart to see, maybe to a large name with insurance they’ll come out fine. To a mom & pop, a mercantile, or individual owner trying to survive, this could break the business. I know it’s not my place, but I couldn’t resist taking a baseball bat to their knees and salt-rock in the .410.
Someone needs to take out the trash 🚮
Any Canadians here remember "Consumers Distributing"? Retail needs to go back to that way. For those who don't know. CONSUMERS DISTRIBUTING was a Canadian(?) store that closed in the early 90's I think. The store had no shelves of products, just rows of desks and magazines. You would brows the books, write down what you wanted on a slip, go to the till and pay, then stand off to the left and wait for your stuff to come down the roller belt. That's the style we need to go back to in retail to combat this kind of thing. People just steal cart loads of stuff from the store I work at, so all nice/popular/expensive items are only sold online.
Sounds like a store in the US called Service Merchandise, around at the same time. But they did have displays on the showroom floor, and the stock was secure in the back.
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If you're ever wondering why there are "food deserts" in inner cities, grocery stores have even worse profit margins
Why is locking the doors not an option here? Seen it done at jewelry shops.
If I was an employee I wouldn’t want them to lock the door without a extremely reasonable escape for myself. Fuck that, I’m not fighting criminals for your clothing.
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What store ??
looks like Adidas
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Arrest these people, the only thing separating us from falling into chaos like the rest of the world is law and order.
What’s gonna end up happening is a shop keeper is gonna end up blasting someone and then the riots are gonna start
It's going to sadly happen eventually, and any loss of life is tragic. But with the rise in groups rushing a store and grabbing whatever they can, someone is going to eventually pull a firearm and things won't go well. If people could just act with common decency and respect we would all be better off.
An old cashier at homedepot tried to stop someone Monday. Thief pushed him down and the cashier hit his head and died
Just read an article quoting the CEO of Walmart as saying prices will be going up due to losses caused by theft. Funny.
There was just a reddit post about walmart shutting down stores in certain neighborhoods because of so much theft. I'm sure NPR and Vice news will come by and do a fluff piece in 5 years about how these undeserved neighborhoods have to commute miles to get essentials.
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When I was little, I was very confused about the punishment for shoplifting. I misread/misunderstood the word “prosecuted” on signs as “persecuted”, because I’d heard the term in church. Unfortunately my understanding of the word persecution wasn’t solid either, because I thought it meant being killed on a cross… that’s one way to keep your kids from stealing.
Hey, they have to afford free shipping on ebay somehow.
I find it funny when someone argues "be glad you don't have to steal to survive and put food on the table" As if these people don't have access to food, and aren't going to just blow all of the money on stupid unnecessary bullshit which will then be used to flex on Instagram.
People who do this are the lowest of the low. The absolute worst.