Theft epidemic

Baillio said his Albuquerque-based electronics and appliance chain has “been stolen from just about every way you could be stolen from.”

Some bandits have come in the night, using their car to crash through the doors and grab the goods.

Others sneaked away with the merchandise in broad daylight.

In the most dispiriting cases, the crimes have been perpetrated from the inside — a rogue employee pilfering the inventory or aiding thievery by an outsider.

But even after decades in the business, the Baillio’s owner said retail crime seems particularly bad right now.

An estimated $13 billion worth of goods are stolen from U.S. retailers each year and there have been more than 10 million related arrests in the past five years, according to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention.

“It’s an epidemic, it really is,” said Baillio, estimating that his three-store chain has an incident once every two or three weeks.

And the offenders generally go for specific merchandise: cameras, laptops and tablet computers.

“That’s usually what they try to do,” Baillio said. “(Those things are) easy to get rid of quick.”

‘This is organized’

The National Retail Federation distinguishes shoplifting from what is known as “organized retail crime.” In ORC, the theft is conducted with the intent to use the illegally obtained merchandise for financial gain rather than personal use.

The problem is not the sticky-fingered teenager lifting a video game or tube of lip gloss but rather scheming networks who know how to turn the merchandise into cash.

“This is organized. We have (offenders) that are paying their rent, paying for everything off of the theft of items from these stores,” said Cmdr. William Roseman of APD’s property crimes division.

In ORC, stolen goods are resold using a variety of channels, including the Internet.

“It’s a lot easier now to become your own distributor or fencing operation,” said Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz. “You can sell stuff (online) … pretty easily.”

Police say the merchandise also makes its way to the flea markets or is sold out of private homes and cars. In one instance, APD arrested an offender when he was en route to sign a lease to open his own thrift store.

A 2012 National Retail Federation survey of 125 loss-prevention experts from throughout the retail industry found that 96 percent had been victims of organized retail crime in the previous 12 months.

Police say big-box stores tend to see the most ORC but that smaller, locally owned speciality retailers get victimized too.

No business is immune, said Coronado Center general manager Randy Sanchez.

Also chairman of the New Mexico Retail Association, Sanchez said ORC seems to have boomed during the recession.

Some of the most prolific offenders treat it almost like a full-time job.

“I go to work every day,” Sanchez said, “and they do too.”

Albuquerque police say much of the ORC is team-oriented and may involve store employees. APD’s organized crime unit detectives submitted 128 completed cases for prosecution in 2012 — cases for which they arrested a total of 304 offenders.

Sometimes it’s a few members of the same family, but it can involve a much larger network. APD once arrested a ring leader they say had recruited 25 homeless people to perform the actual shoplifting.

In those kinds of cases, the recruits may be given “shopping lists” of items to take and then paid off in drugs.

Like all property crime, officials say drug addiction fuels most ORC.

“That’s something that’s sad to say — it’s just part of America today. Because they don’t work during the day and they’ve got to buy the drugs, what do they do? They go steal from somebody. It has become widespread,” Baillio said.

Top targets

As Baillio’s has seen, small electronics like laptops and digital cameras are among the most popular targets according to NRF’s 2012 survey.

But the list of most commonly stolen goods is surprisingly diverse. It includes energy drinks, weight loss pills, cigarettes, designer denim, cellphones, pregnancy tests, lotions, and even KitchenAid mixers.

The country has been awash in media reports of wide-scale Tide thefts, and Albuquerque police say detergent is among the more popular targets for Albuquerque thieves.

In fact, one of the hottest trends is to steal consumable goods. According to Schultz, the offenders APD arrested in 2011 for felony larceny had stolen an estimated $800,000 worth of consumable and household goods verses about $453,000 in firearms.

According to Target — one of the nation’s largest retailers — ORC offenders cast a wide net.

“The products we see targeted are those that can be easily resold for significant value. These include traditional products like electronics and DVDs, as well as some products you might not think of, like beauty products, razor blades and baby formula,” Target spokeswoman Erika Winkels said in an email.

Coronado Center’s Sanchez said mall thieves tend to go for health and beauty products and children’s clothing.

New Mexico Grocers Association President Gene Valdez said the grocery industry has battled theft for many years, especially on items like cigarettes. Though grocers have reacted by making more coveted merchandise harder to steal, retail crime remains what he calls a “huge problem.”

“I don’t know if it’s gotten any worse (lately),” he said. “The real issue here is we all pay for it. As retailers, we have to build some of that shrink into our cost of goods.”

Fighting ORC

The doctrine among many local ORC offenders is to keep the value of the goods stolen just under $500. At $500, larceny becomes a felony instead of a misdemeanor under state law.

The New Mexico Retail Association has sought legislation to lower that threshold on multiple occasions without success. It did not pursue such a bill during the 2013 session.

Offenders might be charged with a felony count of commercial burglary for stealing under $500 in merchandise if he or she has previously been banned from the victimized business by notice of criminal trespass. Schultz said that’s a tactic police and retailers are pursuing more often to thwart the most prolific thieves, though Chief Deputy District Attorney Mark Drebing said that practice has led to some appeals.

ORC is often the work of repeat offenders — “As a rule, over 70 percent have prior arrests,” Schultz said.

Debring said the DA’s Office works with APD and the Albuquerque Retail Assets Protection Association (see sidebar) to identify those individuals and prosecute them accordingly.

Offenders could face sentences ranging from probation to 20-plus years in prison, depending on their charges and criminal history, he added.

“We tend to go a little bit more aggressive after” the repeat offenders, he said.