A San Francisco family-owned hardware store has lost a staggering $700,000 in a single year to ‘organized shoplifting’ as the city continues to battle rampant crime.
Dale Hardware’s owner Kyle Smith described the helpless situation in Fremont – and said that his grandfather, who founded the shop in 1955, would ‘roll in his grave’ if he knew about the unbridled shoplifting.
It’s understood that the uncontrolled looting in San Francisco has occurred for a number of reasons – including the accelerating organized retail theft and increased homelessness.
Widespread drug addiction and the move away from incarceration for less-serious crimes also are contributing factors, according to experts.
Devastated Smith told the Mercury News: ‘You’ll go, “Sir, sir, sir!” and they don’t even turn around. Or they’ll give you a look, like, “Do you want to go there?”
‘How do we run a small business with $1,800 of loss every day? It ends up costing the consumer more money because we can’t survive without raising prices.’
A San Francisco family-owned hardware store lost a staggering $700,000 in a single year to ‘organized shoplifting’ as the city continues to battle rampant crime. CCTV footage from various days last year show a number of people brazenly walking out of the store holding stolen tools – some which are concealed in bags, but others that are just carried out in the open
Footage has caught the crafty thieves stealing from the store. People pinpointed in the clips have individually stolen as much as $2,800 worth of supplies without being stopped by staff
Dale Hardware’s owner Kyle Smith (pictured) described the helpless situation in Fremont – and said that his grandfather, who founded the shop in 1955, would ‘roll in his grave’ if he knew about the rampant shoplifting
CCTV footage from various days last year show a number of people brazenly walking out of the store holding stolen tools – some which are concealed in bags, but others that are just carried out in the open.
People pinpointed in the clips have individually stolen as much as $2,800 worth of supplies without being stopped by staff.
In another instance, a man shoved stolen gloves from the shelves down his pants before walking out of the shop unscathed.
He also took 37 circular saw blades from the store.
And another situation saw a pair load a flatbed cart with $11,000 in specialty wire.
One of their accomplices stood at the door posing as a customer – warning employees to stop pursuing because ‘those guys have guns.’
They walked away with all the gear.
And one woman, pushing a double stroller with a blanket and teddies draped over it, hid $4,000 worth of batteries she had grabbed from the store in less than four minutes.
The large store hires dozens of employees, and has installed many cameras and license-plate readers in the parking lot in a bid to stop the looting – but to no avail.
Heavy chains now adorn most of the expensive merchandise in Smith’s store.
A woman is seen with a bag filled with items after stealing from Dales
The large store hires dozens of employees, and has installed many cameras and license-plate readers in the parking lot in a bid to stop the looting – but to no avail
In 2021, Rachel Michelin, the president of the California Retailers’ Association, said San Francisco and Oakland areas suffered the second-highest amount of losses to organized retail crime in the country.
The two areas have lost around $3.6 billion to shoplifting.
Earlier this month, it was reported that theft had become so bad in San Francisco that some stores were padlocking shut their freezers and tying metal chains to ensure the doors remain closed overnight.
Video shot by one potential shopper at a local Walgreens in the city sees aisle after aisle of products locked away behind Perspex and glass, out of the reach of thieves.
Even lower value items such as toothpaste and tissues are kept under lock and key, such is the rampant theft that has been occurring in many of the city’s pharmacies and supermarkets.
At one particular location, on 16th Street and Geary Blvd, the freezer doors are entirely chained up, with staff concerned thieves will come into the store overnight to empty the contents.
Shop workers have already reported a problem with thieves coming in to the store as many as 20 times a day to fill their bags full of products including items that need to be kept at cool temperatures such as frozen pizza and ice cream.
The problem of such wanton theft is not unique to San Francisco; other big cities across the nation including in New York have also been dealing with the problem over the last few years.
In some cases it has left pharmacy chains no option but to leave areas completely as the massive thefts hurt the bottom line.
The pictures of chained-up merchandise marks a new low point, with stores risking alienating legitimate loyal customers who can no longer be bothered to go through the rigmarole of having to summon staff simply to grab something off the shelf.
Another local branch of Walgreens in San Francisco is completely boarded up, although still open, and was recently the scene of a fatal confrontation between a homeless trans woman and a security guard.
DailyMail
