NYPD Says Shoplifting Down, Arrests Up as Police Apprehend Trio in $132,000 Nike Heist
Retail crime continues to frustrate brands and law enforcement worldwide.
Just days after a California committee met to address the growing theft problem, the Folsom Police Department’s sting operation arrested 21 individuals and recovered more than $17,000 in stolen merchandise as the Golden State clamps down on retail crime.
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Folsom PD said it documented 159 reports of retail theft in December alone. The department’s Community Crime Suppression Unit (CCSU) worked with the California Highway Patrol Organized Retail Crime Task Force (ORCTF) to stakeout targeted retail businesses in the northern California city.
“Looking ahead, the Folsom Police Department remains committed to curbing the rise in retail theft with a series of planned retail theft blitzes in 2024,” the department wrote on its Facebook page on Thursday. “The collaboration with the California Highway Patrol has proven instrumental in addressing this issue, and the Folsom Police Department extends its gratitude for their ongoing support.”
The Phoenix Police Department also detailed a December organized retail crime bust. Noelle Alexander, Shakira King and Jasmine Pritchard wheeled shopping carts full of stolen merchandise out of a local Marshall’s store before police officers arrested them in the parking lot. According to a local Fox News affiliate, store associates recognized the suspects as repeat offenders and tipped off police. Pritchard was accused of committing several other retail thefts in the area, and police said King accompanied her on at least one other occasion.
Three suspects in Florida were arrested outside of a Palm Beach Gucci store in late December as they attempted steal luxury merchandise. Officers with the Palm Beach Police Department responded to a call from a Gucci store associate who confronted a suspect attempting to steal a pair of shoes. The suspect returned the shoes and all three fled the store.
While obtaining a statement from the store manager, police saw three men matching the suspects’ descriptions walking nearby and pursued them on foot. Police apprehended the three suspects with a Burberry shopping bag containing $2,165 in designer items from Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Casablanca Paris. Leonardo Bastardo, Brianny Fernandez and Yimes Cepeda were arrested and face charges including loitering, prowling, resisting an officer, grand theft, and possession of an anti-shoplifting device.
Crime-plagued New York City reported new data showing progress with shoplifting. According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), the city documented 52,000 reported incidents of shoplifting last year—4,500 fewer than 2022. Police arrested 3,000 more shoplifters in 2023 than they did the year prior.
Michael Lipetri, chief of the Office of Crime Control Strategies, said police believe the decline in shoplifting incidents stems from a more visible patrols in shopping districts. Law enforcement has worked with NYC businesses to monitor criminal patterns. “What we also saw with shoplifting is we had a 40-percent increase in the store calling the NYPD to report a theft, and that’s what we’ve asked them to do,” he said.
NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share the department’s 2023 crime statistics, noting a 13 percent decline in burglary, 3 percent decline in robberies, and 2-plus-percent dip in grand larcenies.
In Philadelphia, decision-makers announced new moves to attack retail crime. A new law championed by State Senator David Argall established the Office of Deputy Attorney General for Organized Retail Crime Theft, where five prosecuting attorneys will focus on statewide retail crimes. The law also lowers the value threshold for thefts that can be prosecuted as second- and third-degree felonies.
Under previous Pennsylvania law stolen merchandise worth $5,000-$19,999 qualified for third-degree felony charges; now that’s $2,500-$9,999. The theft of $10,000-$49,999 in merchandise is now a second-degree felony, instead of anything over $20,000.
Nike, long a popular target for U.S. criminals, is a hot commodity around the world.
Indian police arrested three men accused of stealing 1,558 pairs of Nike sneakers in Bengaluru. The suspects, who were employed as truck drivers, stole about $132,000 worth of merchandise from a shipment going from a Nike showroom to a warehouse owned by e-commerce company Myntra. They planned to sell them at a discount and pocket the profits.
Shuban Pasha, Mansar Ali and Shahidul Rehman were arrested for the Dec. 21 crime. Saleh Ahmed Laskar, the ringleader and a fellow truck driver, is still at large, according to police. He was supposed to drive a truck carrying the Nike sneakers some 26 miles to its destination, but his supervisors at EC Shipper transport services noticed that the vehicle went off course and didn’t drop off the shipment on time. They followed the truck’s tracking device to the empty vehicle.
Police from the Attibele municipality responded to the incident, using CCTV footage to identify a different delivery vehicle that passed the truck around the same time. Officers tracked down the vehicle at a nearby building and discovered the stolen Nike shoes. The truck’s registration led them to the suspects, who confessed to wanting to sell the stolen sneakers in different cities.
