Alameda police recovered about $75,000 in stolen merchandise following an investigation this year into retail theft after an incident at the South Shore Shopping Center.We’ve all seen viral videos of smash-and-grab robberies. But have you ever considered that you might have inadvertently purchased an item that was stolen during one of those robberies?
Law enforcement and retailers say that’s increasingly how organized retail theft works: The ringleaders of large-scale operations hire and pay “workers” to rob brick-and-mortars stores, and then the ringleaders make millions selling the ill-gotten goods online. Of course, not everyone uses online marketplaces to unload stolen goods. These marketplaces are a huge part of 21st-century commerce and valuable to millions of Californians, whether to purchase something at an affordable price or sell items we no longer need.But online marketplaces are also incentivizing organized retail theft, because without adequate verification of the legitimacy of sellers, theft rings can easily sell stolen goods on online platforms.
Legitimate businesses have already complied. But organized theft rings have found a way around the rules by merely advertising their stolen goods online and then completing the sale offline, either through an app or in-person.