CANTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — Nearly two dozen people were arrested in a retail crime blitz last week. The Canton Police Department was the tip of the spear locally.
Watch Randy Wimbley's full story in the video player below:
It’s part of a larger effort involving more than 100 agencies nationwide to crack down on large-scale theft of retail merchandise that’s often resold for profit.
Organized retail crime costs the retail industry about $100 billion a year.
Watch: Bodycam shows officers recover merchandise from suspect
On our ride-along, we saw Canton cops pull the plug on a snatch-and-stuff job outside of a shopping center. They pulled article after article of clothing out of a pregnant woman’s shirt.
The arrest is just one of several from a recent organized retail crime blitz, in which officers from the Canton Police Department, alongside Northville and Plymouth Township Police, targeted thieves who target big box shops.
"These boosters, which is what we call them, shoplifters, people stealing items, a lot of them are drug addicts who are going out there stealing these items. The high-dollar value items to sell to a fence," said Canton Police Lt. Michael Andes.
Lt. Andes says fences can be gas stations, liquor stores, or pawn shops that buy stolen goods for pennies on the dollar.
"Our motto is to disrupt and dismantle. We disrupt by arresting these boosters, and then we dismantle by going after the fence, and that is always the goal to go after the fence, the people who are funding this operation, funding the drug addicts, we target them," he said.
The sting took place at stores across 36 locations in Canton over the course of two days.
Officers worked alongside loss prevention investigators from 16 different retailers.
"These strategies we’ve refined a bit over the years, they keep getting better ... because some of the best work we’ve seen in law enforcement happens to come from our retailers, so you guys are critical," said Canton Police Chief Chad Baugh during a recent meeting.
Extended interview: The signs loss prevention workers are looking for to help prevent store theft
Here’s how it works: loss prevention specialists keep tabs on suspicious shoppers once they go inside their stores.
They relay information back to cops posted up outside. Once the shoppers leave with stolen wares, the officers move in.
One arrest went down outside of a Kohl’s.
"She went in and out of changing rooms, taking clothing with her and had a device to defeat the security tag that we found in her purse, and she was prying at those security tags off, and she ultimately stole several hundred dollars’ worth of clothing," said Lt. Andes.
Small change, perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, but it all adds up to big bucks for the retail industry.
"It’s in the billions nationwide, but it’s millions just here in Canton Township alone. So, our large stores like Walmart and Meijer and Sam’s Club, they’re losing millions of dollars each year," said Lt. Andes.
And that cost is passed on to you.
"Ultimately, we’re all paying extra for our items, and the prices continue to go up, and we’re here to combat that problem as well as bringing these addicts into our community that are committing crimes, and that's what we don't want to have here," he said.
Another common target for boosters? Hardware stores.
"Our female just walked out the doors. She has three declined credit cards for all the stuff in the shopping cart," heard over the radio.
Police arrested a woman who, according to Home Depot loss prevention agents, stole several products from the store on Michigan Avenue.
She hopped into her car, where a second woman was waiting, as police approached her.
Officers were unsure if there were weapons inside or if she would speed off, putting others and herself in danger.
"Had she had tried to drive away, it would not have been a good day for myself. So, I appreciate that we were able to get her keys out of her hands before she tried to drive off," said Lt. Andes.
On top of that, police say both women had active warrants, one for narcotics. The other for resisting arrest.
In all, 23 people were arrested and thousands of dollars in stolen products were recovered.
The message is clear: "We want to send to our residents and to the people that come to our town that we’re not going to tolerate people stealing from our community, and we are going to bring them to justice," said Lt. Andes.
