Police say little penalty for property crimes is leading to uptick in retail theft
Jul 31, 2024, 8:36 PM | Updated: 8:49 pm
WEST VALLEY CITY —In mid—July, a store inside a St. George mall was burglarized, resulting in the theft of $500,000 of merchandise.
Police said the theft was committed by a sophisticated, international crime group that travels from state to state, committing retail theft. It’s part of a rising trend of organized groups targeting Utah as a hotspot for stolen goods.
Police say there has been a steady rise in sophisticated crime groups traveling from state to state to steal large quantities of goods since 2020. Recently, nine people were arrested during a shopping mall blitz in West Valley City.
KSL obtained photos from that blitz showing a perpetrator walking out with a full shopping cart of goods. Police said the goods are then either traded for drugs, sold on a black market or returned to the store for cash, as seen in another obtained photo.
Some of the people committing crimes are local repeat offenders. However, police said most are from out of the country, traveling from the border to different states to commit theft. They said the route in Utah often involves hitting stores along Interstate 15 from other states. They also said weak penalties on property crime have influenced them to come back again.
“They hit the same stores, they travel a route and know where they’re going to hit those stores,” said James Russell, supervisor of the CASE task force built to combat theft. “They feel confident they can get away with it.”
Steve Jensen, an officer on the task force, said it’s more than just a retail problem for larger stores.
“If it was just a retail problem, they would’ve fixed it by now,” he said. “They’ve done everything they can, from locking up products to monitoring these situations, to contacting police to making reports. So, this is a community problem, and it’s about all of us coming together.”
Police say most international theft groups originate in Romania and countries in South America, accessing the United States from the southern border.
They claim more strict penalties for these crimes would help make it more difficult to commit them. They also said the legislature is keeping a close eye on the numbers.