Several years ago, thieves began stealing Tide laundry detergent from stores across the country, thefts that initially baffled police. Investigators eventually concluded that the popular and recognizable laundry detergent brand was being stolen and traded on the street for cash, weed or cocaine, according to published reports. Tide laundry detergent! In fact, during a recent drug raid, the police confiscated more Tide than cocaine!
Most thieves load carts with dozens of bottles of detergent, then dash out the door. And they often have getaway cars waiting outside. The fact is thefts have become so common that retailers like CVS are tagging bottles with anti-theft devices, or storing them behind the counter with other frequently-stolen items, like cold medicine. Rated R. To Hollywood, an art thief is the perfect anti-hero. They can be sophisticated connoisseurs of fine art while still moonlighting as a daring criminal.
For example, a few years ago, a criminal walked into a conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew during its opening hours, and walked out with a pygmy Rwandan waterlily. So, so wrong. The Guardian. That flower is only found in two, small locations in the entire world. Generally speaking, orchids and rare cacti attract the most attention from thieves. Thefts of the flower are so frequent, botanists usually raise the flowers in secret. Traders illicit and otherwise of these plants will regularly check the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species database to determine how close a certain variety is to dying out.
California tree nuts are some of the most highly sought after nuts in the world. The problem has gotten so bad that some California counties have actually banned the sale of nuts until the harvest is complete, in an effort to stunt black market sales. One of the more notorious cases went like this:.
He was early, which seemed suspicious to the logistics director, but Alex had all the right papers and everything seemed to check out. An hour after that, Alex picked up another batch at a separate warehouse.
Pictured: A Canadian, making the most out of the reserve stock. In his investigation, Thompson realized that since the supply of Tide would be hard to curb, he had to figure out how to stem the illicit demand. Working from leads provided by inmates and parolees offering to share details about their own Tide dealings in exchange for a good word with their judge or parole officer, he and his fellow officers pieced together a loose network of middlemen—barbershops, nail salons, and drug houses that were taking in bottles to either sell on the side to their clients or at a deep discount to willing corner stores and pawn shops.
Despite its popularity, Tide is not a big moneymaker for stores. Only so much of that can be passed on to customers. In general, a retailer clears just a few percentage points on a Tide purchase. Chain stores also wind up in resale schemes. Rather than stock large surpluses of popular items, those businesses often rely on so-called perpetual-inventory systems to electronically record sales data and relay it to manufacturers, which stagger deliveries accordingly.
When a bottle of Tide is taken from a store without being rung up, a crucial step gets skipped, leading to shipment delays. And when that happens, some store managers place stopgap orders with local wholesalers who may be less than rigorous about where they obtain their products or from fencing rings that employ their own sales teams and maintain legitimate-looking websites.
Plenty are just looking to fill their shelves. To break that final link in the chain, Thompson and his unit needed to nail stores for buying and selling boosted product—and to prove they were moving enough of it to trigger sufficiently dissuasive penalties.
Prosecutors have to base charges on the retail value of the stolen merchandise. Above that threshold, it becomes a felony, and a perpetrator faces the possibility of years behind bars. During a sting operation last June, Thompson tried a new tactic.
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