Are crime bosses paying shoplifters to steal?

There’s mounting evidence that organized retail theft rings are targeting the homeless and drug addicts to do their stealing.

They know the threshold to prosecute has become so high, little or nothing will happen to them if they get caught.

The thieves who walk into stores like Home Depot and take merchandise are brazen, almost knowing they can get away with it.

Officials at the big box home improvement store say the shoplifters will wheel out full carts of merchandise.

In one incident captured on surveillance camera footage, an alleged shoplifter lost boxes of tools while trying to leave the store but was confronted by store workers. The man ditched the cart he was pushing and grabbed a box instead.

Law enforcement officials said thieves often run to a waiting car the speeds away from the scene once they and their stolen merchandise are safely inside the getaway vehicle.

Company officials at Home Depot won’t disclose how much it loses to shoplifters. Richard McPhail, its chief financial officer said recently that theft is “the most significant impact” to the retailer’s profit margins.

“It affects us a lot,” said Elena del Valle, Organized Retail Crime Manager for Home Depot’s Western Division.

According to 2019 survey done by the National Retail Federation, $703,320 on average is lost to theft for $1 billion in sales.

National Retail FederationMore than two-thirds of retailers (68 percent) blame a new aggressiveness by organized retail theft rings for the stolen merchandise.

In video of one incident from Home Depot, a woman who was allegedly stealing fought with store workers who were trying to stop her. She eventually took a swing at a worker before leaving the store empty handed.

What may be more alarming is who the crime rings are recruiting to steal.

“We've seen these places recruit vulnerable populations of people” del Valle said.

Investigators told KOMO News ring leaders are preying on people who are desperate for quick cash and are taking advantage of the lack of prosecution for theft that doesn’t add up to tens of thousands dollars.

She said the retailer has noticed on several occasions that the thieves are being given lists of products that they want, “and then they come into our stores, take that product, take it back to them, and that’s when it’s being resold.”

The owner of two pawn shops in Kent and Renton is under investigation for storing millions of dollars of stolen items in a Kent warehouse and recruiting vulnerable people to steal merchandise in exchange for cash.

Washintonton News is not naming the stores or their owner because no one has been charged yet in the case.

Investigators said people will line up at one of the pawn shops to get their lists of items to steal before returning the stolen goods still in its original packaging. The thieves are sometimes told to return items to stores in exchange for gift cards that end up on the dark web, investigators said.

In one instance, KOMO News saw $3,000 worth of gift cards for sale at an asking price of just $300 on a popular dark web marketplace.

In some instances, goods will show up on Facebook Marketplace or online apps like Offer Up.

Retail managers said the clue is there will be many unopened items that show up in one picture.

“We will do our investigation to find out who the fencing location is and who the main person is,” del Valle said.

That evidence is handed over to police but for retailers, the most frustrating part is what comes next.

“I believe that there's really no punishment anymore for shoplifting,” del Valle said. “It's cite and release, and the criminals know that, so we're very vulnerable to that.”

In Washington state, retailers are limited by law on how they can respond to shoplifting.

“Right now, you can’t be stopped until you leave the store,” said state Rep. Roger Goodman, Kirkland.

State lawmakers are considering changing the definition of theft to allow store loss prevention officers and police to stop shoplifters inside a store when an item is concealed.

But it’s not clear if the measure has enough support to pass both chambers and become law.