Posted on 08/02/2023 2:08:42 PM PDT by lowbridge
hardware store in California’s Bay Area had an eye-watering $700,000 in merchandise stolen in a single year — as organized retail theft runs rampant in the Democrat-run state.
Dale Hardware in Fremont documented record losses in 2022 due to the brazen larceny, owner Kyle Smith told The Mercury News.
He said his business loses about $1,800 a day — and that his grandfather, who first began the business in 1955, would “roll in his grave” if he knew the financial hardship the store was facing as a result of the scourge.
“You’ll go, ‘Sir, sir, sir!’ and they don’t even turn around,” Smith told the outlet.
“Or they’ll give you a look, like, ‘Do you want to go there?’”
Retail experts told the outlet a variety of things have led to the current shoplifting crisis, including an increase in “organized retail theft,” or social media posts that have seemingly prompted people to flock to stores and steal.
-snip
Other shoplifters brazenly filled a shopping cart with $11,000 in specialty wire, and kept an accomplice at the door to warn employees against pursuing the thieves because they had guns, Smith said.
-snip
Staff at the hardware store say they only call the police when the loss is greater than $10,000 because authorities are unlikely to hold the perpetrators accountable over lower-level amounts.
Other Bay Area businesses have also reported a disturbing uptick in retail theft, but many incidents don’t get reported so the problem only persists.
-snip
The store owner recalled one woman who showed him a list of items she had been tasked with stealing by an Oakland man who sent a dozen thieves out to shoplift each day in the Bay Area.
“She had already been to Target,” he said. “She’d been to Home Depot. She’d been to Lowe’s.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
He won’t move. Just collect the insurance and continue voting for it.
Stop calling them Sir.
There’s only one thing these feral bassturds understand and it ain’t a woke judge.
Cop: I know, folks. Sometimes we get so angry we feel like busting out and arresting the thieves. Then we settle down and do the mindfulness meditations we’re taught to do.
A lot of small businesses are quitting because of that but cheer up, the Democrats running the state into the ground will still have all the criminals voting for and keeping them in power. I wonder if their plans are to morally and financially bankrupt the state and then ask the Chinese government to come in help run it.
The insurance will drop him THEN what is he going to do!! Several insurance companies are no longer insuring homes in Ca.
I think I found the problem. No sympathy from me.
After a while, insurance companies won’t cover your losses. If he lost $700k in a year, his insurance company would drop him.
If the owner is a Democrat I won’t care one bit
actually kind of surprising. Hardware is usually for “do it yourself” types.
Not the type I associate with this behaviour.
“You’ll go, ‘Sir, sir, sir!’ and they don’t even turn around,”
...A: They aren’t “sirs”. They’re animals.
B: They know they can get away with it
C: Move. Stop voting Dem
Years and years ago, I managed a small local hardware store. Theft was a big issue. You wouldn’t think it but this was when qualified help was hard to find. The place had to close...low sales in the face of home centers and box stores. But shrinkage was a real problem. I swore to never work retail again.
Some hardware can be used for burglary tools—and of course copper wire has street value.
Our local Ace store moved to a larger building. They put a lot of distance from the registers to the front door and there are now at least 4 employees that stand in that area all the time eyeballing everyone.
They aren't stealing it to use it. They are selling what they get on the street for cash. I've been approached by homeless looking people asking if I want to buy a new whatever for x dollars. You can tell they stole it. I refuse to buy it, because I know it's stolen. And the specialty wire? Probably going straight to the recyclers for cash for Pennie's on the dollar.
Pennie's should be pennies.
Oftentimes, when you arrest these thieves, you find that they have other outstanding arrest warrants, often from several jurisdictions. Some even have felony warrants from the department of corrections for parole violation. The shoplifting is just the "presenting" symptom.
What the business paid me to work shoplifting duty was never covered by the value of the recovered stolen goods. But word got around in the thieving community quickly, and pre-emptively stopped a lot of would-be thieves from trying.
“continue voting for it.”
It isn’t the case that Ace Hardware store owners, even in California, by and large vote liberally.
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