#organized-retail-theft

#organized-retail-theft

Novato police arrested four suspects in the theft of about $33,000 worth of eyewear products, including 90 pairs of glasses. The theft happened at about 3 p.m. Friday at the LensCrafters store at the Vintage Oaks Shopping Center. Witnesses said the thieves fled in a Dodge Charger without license plates. A California Highway Patrol officer stopped the vehicle on southbound Highway 101 in Terra Linda. Investigators determined that three men and a 17-year-old boy were the thieves.

Members of a sophisticated burglary crew suspected of executing a series of smash-and-grab retail burglaries that netted more than $2.6 million in stolen goods this year have been arrested, the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday. Three adults and three minors were arrested in connection with the burglaries at high-end eyewear and sunglass shops throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties, the statement said.

Coming out of the pandemic, many retail chains, political leaders, law enforcement officials and others told America there was an unprecedented level of shoplifting. Shoplifting became a political lighting rod, and videos of thieves smashing store windows and grabbing merchandise rocketed across the news and social media as a symbol of a breakdown across cities. But national crime data never showed a retail theft wave, though shoplifting did spike in certain cities like New York.