A group of masked suspects are seen entering a Toronto LCBO with large empty bags and suitcases. <\/p>\n
Police say suspects caught on video \u201cblatantly\u201d filling up empty bags and suitcases with merchandise stolen from the LCBO are among the more than 500 who are now facing charges in a retail theft crackdown that has been ongoing for the past two years. <\/p>\n
Speaking at a news conference at Toronto police headquarters, Supt. Ron Taverner, who is in charge of the unit, which operates out of 23 Division, said more than 4,000 charges have been laid to date. <\/p>\n
He noted the investigations involve about $1.6 million in stolen merchandise. <\/p>\n
In one investigation, 20 people were arrested and more than 400 charges were laid, Taverner said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany of those involved are not first-time offenders\u2026 Repeat and prolific offenders are out there and active in their criminal activities,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese offenders are often also connected to larger organized crime networks involved in the distribution and resale of stolen goods. That\u2019s why tackling these crimes is so significant.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a video shown during the news conference, a group of masked males could be seen entering a Toronto LCBO with large empty bags and suitcases. The suspects are then seen filling the bags and leaving unimpeded. <\/p>\n
Taverner said those suspects were subsequently arrested by police. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not minor offences,\u201d he said. \u201cRetail crimes cost businesses billions of dollars in losses every year.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018Steal-to-order\u2019<\/p>\n
Rui Rodrigues, of the Retail Council of Canada, said repeated offenders are cycling through the system with \u201clittle deterrence.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cRetailers are also having to consider where to open a store and how safe is it to be there and will the customers come to me there? So these are challenges retailers are facing regularly now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He noted that the online, illicit marketplace has grown exponentially in the last five years, and alarming trends are emerging, including escalating violence toward frontline employees.<\/p>\n
He noted that investigators have also uncovered \u201csteal-to-order\u201d trends, where criminals will advertise going out and getting items that have not yet been stolen. <\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody wants something, they send somebody out to get it,\u201d Rodrigues said. <\/p>\n
\u201cRetailers who are carrying these higher-value goods have to do a lot to protect themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of masked suspects are seen entering a Toronto LCBO with large empty bags and suitcases. Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-847245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-apple-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}