A cart full of tools, a bag full of bras — shoplifters have gotten bold, police say

They knew what they wanted.

When several people accused of felony larceny and conspiracy walked into a Charlotte-area Victoria’s Secret in May, they looked past the mannequins and displays to open drawers full of bras and other items. They loaded the clothing into bags and walked out while store employees looked on, according to surveillance video.

“As you can see from some of this, the clerks are faced with, ‘Do I just watch this theft happen, or do I try and stop it?’ And that’s not a choice that a clerk should ever have to make,“ Assistant District Attorney Tim Sielaff said.

The suspects in that case were arrested in August, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police estimated they’d stolen more than $200,000 in items from Victoria’s Secret and TJ Maxx stores around the region.

Police say Charlotte’s shoplifting problem is growing, and there may be dozens of groups like the Victoria’s Secret crew, Detective Anthony Finocchio said.

“This isn’t kids stealing a bunch of candy bars from retail stores,” Lt. Brad Koch said. “In fact, this is adults rolling full carts of electronics, clothing and tools out of the front door of big-box stores.”

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police launched a task force at the beginning of January to try to reduce organized, large-scale shoplifting in stores around Charlotte, department officials said.

Shoplifting reports have increased 13 percent citywide this month compared to January 2018, Koch said, and some divisions have seen increases as high as 50 percent. Nearly 6,000 shoplifting incidents were reported in all of 2018, police said.

The thefts add up to millions of dollars in losses to stores, Koch said, which causes at least two problems: prices go up for law-abiding customers and the money raised from stolen goods can be spent on more illegal activity.

“What this task force helps us do is identify and separate who’s making a youthful indiscretion or a desperate act based on economic circumstances and who is actually damaging our community by creating their own black-market business off of retailers,” Sielaff said.

Finocchio refused to go into detail about how the Victoria’s Secret case was solved.

Police asked anyone who spots a shoplifter to call 911 and share as much information as possible about the person’s appearance and vehicle. They also said employees and witnesses should not try to interact with suspects, for safety reasons.

Police released photos Wednesday of suspects in an unrelated Home Depot theft, who rolled a cart full of tools right past the checkout counter. Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600, police said.

This story was originally published January 30, 2019 at 3:43 PM.