Organized retail crime: Uncovering how crime rings

MELBOURNE, Fla. — We’ve all seen the videos of brazen smash and grabs like these. It isn’t just simple shoplifting. It’s organized retail theft.

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Law enforcement and retailers are sounding the alarm about the rise in organized retail theft. It’s a multi-billion dollar problem that’s costing retailers and you.

Investigative reporter Ashlyn Webb spoke to investigators about groups hitting stores right here in Central Florida.

The thieves operate in groups, stealing thousands of dollars worth of items like expensive power tools, designer clothes and beauty products-- often in broad daylight.

But what cameras don’t always show is what comes next.

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“That’s going to a pawn shop, that’s going online, that’s using social media, that’s using Craigslist, all the way up to you know, partnering with a wholesaler and kind of having that stream of revenue through there,” said Melbourne Police Detective Christopher Thomas.

Melbourne Police recently dismantled an organized theft ring that included two Florida Tech college football players. They were convicted of stealing thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, including hundreds of golf balls.

Former Melbourne investigator Mark Jennewein says it first seemed like individual shoplifting cases. Then, investigators were able to connect the dots-- to the suspects, the items, and then the e-commerce sites like Facebook Marketplace.

“They operated on it or a fake name that had an alias, and we began seeing the items posted online for sale,” Jennewein said.

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They sell it at absurdly low prices.

Detective Christopher Thomas says these rings often start locally, and the longer they operate, the larger their footprint becomes.

“All of a sudden, we’re crossing borders into Georgia, and then up to east coast and over to Texas,” Thomas said.

The Melbourne-based ring eventually stretched from Kentucky to Panama.

“And I mean, these guys were the little leaguers,” Jennewein said.

Organized retail crime: Uncovering how crime rings operate We’ve all seen videos of stores being cleaned out by packs of shoplifters. (WFTV)

The investigators say there’s larger scale groups, some based overseas that travel to steal merchandise from Central Florida stores.

Groups often recruit homeless people or juveniles to go into stores to shoplift and turn it over to the group for fast cash.

Theft rings in Florida have also been connected to other crimes like money laundering and drug trafficking.

“When we hit a drug house, there were 100 cartons of Tide. Well, what are they doing?,” Jennewein said. “It’s a consumable item that can be sold. I’ll give you Tide if you give me two hits of heroin. You know, I mean, it’s, it’s worth money to somebody or somebody else.”

These rings are of even more concern because of all the money retailers have lost in the last couple years.

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Florida alone lost over $5 billion in retail theft last year.

Nationwide, the losses added up to $112 billion.

Researchers project retail theft could cost retailers over $140 billion next year.

Because retailers are losing so much money to stolen items, these businesses are having to raise the prices for the good-law abiding shoppers so you’re paying more because of these organized theft groups.

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