Shoplifting surges nationwide while violent crime returns to pre-COVID levels, report says

Shoplifting remains a stubborn problem for American businesses even as the COVID-19-era crime wave cools overall.

Retail theft is up 24% through the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, according to the latest report from the Council on Criminal Justice.

Stores are being ransacked by thieves 10% more often than they were in 2019 as well, the report says, which looked at 23 cities that had larceny crime data on hand.

The report said shoplifting fell in 2020 and 2021 before rebounding in 2023.

Brazen acts of shoplifting appeared to hit Democrat-run cities the hardest, where softer penalties and overburdened police departments emboldened thieves to run wild with less fear of being locked up.

Retailers reacted by putting everything from toilet paper to beauty products behind glass casings.

Those who didn’t were plundered out of business, such as the infamously barren CVS store in the District that shuttered in February.

Target closed multiple stores last year in New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, due to security concerns, while Nike decided not to reopen a store in Portland because of rampant theft.

A trend of “flash mob” robberies also became more prominent throughout the country.

The fast-moving heists typically involve a group of thieves running into a store, grabbing armfuls of merchandise and then sprinting to getaway cars idling just outside the business.

The phenomenon hit the Los Angeles area last summer when a Nordstrom and a Yves Saint Laurent location had over $400,000 worth of goods combined stolen.        

A Chanel store in D.C.’s downtown was raided twice in 2023 by the frenetic robberies.

The Council on Criminal Justice report found that violent crime nationwide had either reached or fallen below pre-pandemic levels.

The only crimes that remain elevated are carjackings, which are up 68% compared to the first six months of 2019, and car thefts, which are up 66% when compared against that same period.

But carjackings and car thefts have fallen 26% and 18% since the first half of 2023.