Hardware Store Loses $700,000 to Thieves

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A Fremont, CA hardware store lost $700,000 from shoplifters in 2022, as reported by Jackson Walker of ABC News.  The family-owned Dale Hardware provided security video of shoplifters pushing shopping carts full of stolen items out the door.  The owners report that the consistent theft of hand tools like screwdrivers and wrenches are driving these losses.  The story notes that the reduction of consequences for theft in California after the 2014 passage of Proposition 47, has created an epidemic of looting that has forced the closure of Bay Area stores including Walgreens, Nordstrom and numerous small retailers.  Last year a San Francisco man was arrested for marketing $500,000 worth of items stolen from Bay Area stores on Amazon, eBay and Facebook Marketplace.  Similar problems are occurring in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento and cities in the central valley.   While most major retail chains forbid employees from confronting thieves, some smaller stores are fighting back.  Last week CBS News reported that two Stockton, CA 7-Eleven employees took down a masked thief who was brazenly filling a trash can with cigarettes.  One of the employees was beating the thief with a stick until a customer intervened and stopped him.

1 Response

  1. Sean O'Brien says:
    Aug 8, 2023 10:41 am at 10:41 am

    I believe that, years ago, Kent authored a post describing vigilante justice in a rural area of Mexico. The area had no law enforcement to speak of.

    The points are germane here. The government is actively on the side of these criminals. They will punish those who resist the theft of their own property. That’s a problem. The Democratic party has created a society where ordinary people must fear the criminals and the government. The prosecution of Bogdan Vechirko is a shining example of this. Vechirko, of course, did nothing wrong. He was assaulted and robbed, and whom did the cops arrest? Vechirko. He was held longer than many violent criminals. And he was prosecuted to give cover to DFL politicians who jumped to conclusions about his actions. Sickening is the only way to describe this state of affairs.