Fences, or people who buy and sell stolen property, can range from flea market or pawn shop operators to individuals hawking goods on the street.
In the Dayton area, convenience stores have become a primary outlet for stolen merchandise, DiPietro said.
“It’s usually privately owned stores, not so much the chains,’’ he said. “But many of them are regularly buying stolen merchandise.’’
Perhaps the biggest marketplace for stolen goods are online auction sites, such as eBay, where sellers of stolen items can more easily conceal their identities and reach consumers worldwide.
“We’ve had people who are in the security departments of some of our retailers go on some of these online auction sites and find their products sold for less than what they paid for them at wholesale,’’ said Gordon Gough, executive vice president of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants. “That’s how they know the items are hot.”
Ironically, fencing activity generally picks up at about the same time legitimate retailers roll out their best offers during the holiday shopping season.
Professional shoplifters and fences “are in a business just like retailers of acquiring merchandise in advance and reselling it during peak periods of the year, the holidays being one of them,” said Joe LaRocca, senior asset protection adviser for the National Retail Federation, the largest retail trade group in the nation.
That’s why most organized retail thefts occur months before the official start of the holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving, LaRocca said.
Locally, police point to the timing of the theft of hundreds of bras, which occurred over several months through the summer and early fall, as evidence it was the work of professional thieves.
The bra thefts from the Victoria’s Secret at the Mall at Fairfield Commons were valued at nearly $7,000, are still under investigation.
But DiPietro said there’s “no doubt’’ it was the work of an organized shoplifting ring.
Local merchants are fighting back, although several of them contacted for this story were reluctant to discuss their loss-prevention strategies. One of the retailers, who declined to be identified, said he recently purchased a “smart” video camera that would notify store clerks when people are spotted in areas off-limits to the general public.
Investments in such upgraded security technology and losses from thefts are typically passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
About 1.6 cents of every $1 customers spend goes to cover theft-related expenses, according to the retail federation.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or rtucker@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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