Retail fraud attempts up 31% this holiday season
Fraud attempts increased by 31% during the past holiday season, according to data from ACI Worldwide, which, on the positive side, found the number of overall transactions increased by 16%. The survey data, based on hundreds of millions of transactions from global merchants during the 2015 and 2016 holiday shopping season (starting on Thanksgiving and ending on Dec. 31) highlights key shopping - and fraud activity - trends.  Principal findings include:

● From Thanksgiving to Dec. 31, 2016 compared to the same dates in 2015, the number of e-commerce transactions grew by 16%, while fraud attempts grew by 31%.

● Fraud attempt rates were highest on Christmas Eve (1.6%), Shipment cutoff day (1.5%) and Shipment cutoff - express (1.7%). The trends driving these peak fraudulent days include shipment cut-off and buy online pick-up in-store.

● Average ticket price of an attempted fraud transaction decreased by 7% ($228 in 2016, down from $243 in 2015).

● During the 2016 holiday shopping season, the number of fraud attempts based on total population increased compared to the same time in 2015. In 2016, one out of every 97 transactions was a fraudulent attempt. In 2015, one out of every 109 transactions was a fraudulent attempt. chainstoreage.com

A Tale of Holiday Returns
Return Rate and Return Fraud Are Closely Tied to Shrink
With return authorization solutions deployed in 34,000 stores across the country, The Retail Equation/Sysrepublic, the retail business unit of Appriss, annually reports on the state of post-holiday returns in the United States. The company is uniquely positioned to paint an accurate picture through the vast amounts of data it collects and analyzes during the seven days after Christmas at the point of return.

Top Facts About 2016 Holiday Returns

1. Returns peaked again on Dec. 26 at 11:22 a.m. PST/2:22 p.m. EST., this is very close to the same time returns peaked the past three years. It's clear lunchtime on the day after Christmas is the most popular return time of the entire year. This is when all return registers should be properly staffed and associates should be ready to deliver the best customer experience. It is also the ideal time to convert gift returners into regular shoppers.

2. The highest rate of returns nationwide occurred on Dec. 26, where returns were nearly two times the normal rate seen during the holiday season. And, interestingly, because of the way days of the week fell in relation to both Christmas and New Year's Day, Jan. 2 was a big return day also with returns nearly double the normal rate.

3. The Midwest states again had the highest rate of returns, when comparing total dollars purchased to total dollars returned and exchanged.

   a. Illinois had the highest rate of returns with 22.0%, while Missouri had the second highest at 21.2%.

   b. The state with the least rate of returns was Minnesota with 7.0%.

As the hustle and bustle of the holidays begins to wind down, retail executives turn their attention to final shrink numbers. The Retail Equation/Sysrepublic has conducted studies to substantiate the fact that return rate and return fraud are closely tied to shrink. These studies indicate that if a retailer takes actions to prevent return fraud and abuse, shrink can be reduced by a significant amount. This suggests that paying close attention to returns is a powerful weapon to combat shrink. As companies look to improve their loss prevention metrics in the coming months, they should consider implementing strategies to reduce return rate and fraud and, ultimately, shrink. theretailequation.com

Metro One Announces National Expansion
West Coast Presence by March 2017 and Continental United States by May 2017
Metro One LPSG, the leading industry provider of strategic security management solutions, announced today the expansion of its protective services solutions across the United States.

After years in the making, Metro One officially launches in California, Washington, Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, and Utah in March of 2017. This growth will continue with an amplification of services across the continental United States by May of 2017, with client demand as the impetus for their expanded services. businesswire.com

Green Dot Atty Faces DQ Bid In Prepaid Card Fraud Suit
A proposed class of consumers suing Green Dot Corp. and the retailers that sold its reloadable prepaid cards for fraud told a federal judge in Texas Monday that it should disqualify the firm Tillotson Law from representing Green Dot because it didn't tell the other retail defendants about a settlement offer.

Named plaintiff Margaret Hopkins, who alleges the companies did nothing to warn consumers of rampant fraud schemes that tricked her and others into giving up funds on the prepaid cards, told the court that attorneys Jeffrey M. Tillotson, Jonathan R. Patton and J. Austin Irrobali failed to communicate a settlement offer to the other retail defendants - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walgreens Co., Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., Family Dollar, Inc. and CVS Pharmacy, Inc. - in the suit. Hopkins, 83, was defrauded out of $14,000 by a man who claimed to be her jailed grandson in need of bail money in March 2014, according to court documents. She put the money on the Green Dot MoneyPak cards after purchasing them at two Wal-Mart stores. law360.com

Scavengers dumpster dive for high-end makeup
Beauty vloggers are dumpster diving for makeup and uploading 'haul videos' to YouTube, showing off their treasure troves of discarded makeup worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars. One popular YouTuber, Shelbizleee posted a video (which has over 1 million views) about a huge makeup haul from Ulta Beauty which she valued at more than $2,000. Many makeup hunters frequent dumpsters behind major beauty retailers such as Ulta Beauty, but some also search for gold behind drugstores such as CVS, which also sells makeup but at a lower price point.

Makeup dumpster divers will likely run into many purposely destroyed items while on the hunt. Online blogs and articles explain some retailers require employees to use 'damage tactics' when discarding items, such as adding lotion or conditioner to products to ruin them or cutting the bristles off cosmetic brushes. The tactics are meant to address the loss prevention issues associated with the dumpster diving. thv11.com

American Apparel to lay off 2,400 employees
The dismantling of American Apparel is accelerating, with the retail company laying off roughly 2,400 employees. The job cuts, at its Los Angeles headquarters and a manufacturing hub it owns in nearby South Gate, come two months after it filed for bankruptcy protection. usatoday.com

Limited Stores files Chapter 11
Limited Stores has taken another step in the liquidation process it started in December. The women's apparel retailer announced on Tuesday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The chain also said it agreed to a "stalking horse" bid for its intellectual property and some related assets from an affiliate of private equity firm Sycamore Partners. chainstoreage.com

Belk Launches Voluntary Severance Program to Streamline Corporate Office
Belk Inc. has launched a voluntary severance program in an effort to streamline its corporate office, WWD has learned. "Anyone who wants to opt in can opt in," a spokeswoman told WWD, confirming the report. Senior officials were informed of the program Tuesday. There are more than 1,300 employees in Belk's corporate office in Charlotte, N.C. Belk, which generates about $4 billion in annual volume, has 22,000 employees in total. wwd.com

Pilot Flying J, Kroger, and Other Convenience Retailers Help Launch Groundbreaking Retail Training Program
Convenience retailers are joining with the National Retail Federation (NRF) and other merchants on a new training initiative designed to help people pursue opportunities in retail.

The NRF Foundation brought together dozens of retailers and nonprofits to launch RISE Up (Retail Industry Skills & Education), which is designed by the industry to assist people - regardless of education, background, economic means or age - to acquire the skills they need to secure jobs in retail and advance into promising careers.

To date, 21 companies have come together to pledge their support for building the next generation of the retail workforce, including Pilot Flying J and The Kroger Co., the Cincinnati-based parent company of several c-store banners like Loaf N' Jug, Kwik Shop, Turkey Hill Minit Markets and Tom Thumb Food Stores. csnews.com

Top 10 Workplace Trends:
#5 Workplace Flexbility
The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) has published its fourth annual Top 10 Workplace Trends list. Several of the trends on this list signify great changes in the way workplaces function. It appears "change" will be a major trend itself in organizations this year.

#5. Flexibility and Its Effect on the Way Work Is Done

For many employees, the typical 9-to-5/Monday through Friday work schedule is a remnant of the past. Continued focus on the benefits and drawbacks of offering more flexibility for employees will put this topic at the forefront of many employers' minds this year.

As more organizations begin to embrace flexible work schedules and arrangements, telecommuting and virtual teams, a greater emphasis will need to be placed on how these changes affect the way people get their work done, how they collaborate and how to create meaningful, satisfying interpersonal interaction among remote workforces. ehstoday.com

Nine Retailers That May Be Closing Illinois Stores In 2017

Nike branded in-store shops to open in 600+ J.C. Penney stores

Claire's Pulls The Plug On Its IPO

4 takeaways from NRF's Big Show 2017


Quarterly Same Store Sales Results

Big 5 Sporting Goods Q4 comp's up 3.1%

Holiday Same Store Sales Results (Nov/Dec)

Target comp's down 1.3%
Toys R Us comp's down 2.5%
Tiffany & Co. comp's down 4%

Kroll: More than 80% of businesses were fraud victims over last year
Current, former employees most common perpetrators
More than 80% of executives across several industries say their companies were hit by fraud incidents between July 2015 and July 2016, a percentage that has steadily increased over the last three years, according to risk solutions provider Kroll's Annual Global Fraud and Risk Report.

The current report, conducted by Forrester Consulting for Kroll, found that 82% of 545 executives surveyed said their companies were impacted by fraud in the last year, up from 75% in 2015 and 70% in 2013. Aside from fraud, 85% of executives surveyed said their companies were victimized by cyber incidents, including intentional attacks, during the 12-month period covered.

The Kroll report also suggested that the most common perpetrators of fraud, cyber and security incidents over that period were current and former employees. About 60% said attacks were perpetrated by some combination of current employees, former employees and third parties, with about 49% saying incidents involved all three groups. retaildive.com

Canadian government needs help tackling cyberthreats, internal report warns
The Canadian government is "simply not up to the overall challenge" of fending off cyberthreats on its own and must partner with the private sector and the United States to tackle the problem, warns a federally commissioned report. Canada is a prime target for cybercrime, state-sponsored attacks and lone hackers, and government officials have a crucial role to play in helping fend them off, the authors conclude.

"The productivity and competitiveness of Canada in the digital age will require a strong defence of its critical information and technical infrastructure," the report says. "Current efforts by government, industry and communities need to be better co-ordinated and more strategic."

The report comes amid growing concern about damaging intrusions into computer systems that expose personal information, commercial secrets and sensitive government data -- endangering everything from credit ratings to national security. canadiansecuritymag.com

Robots and artificial intelligence set to upend the art of making a sale
As soon as you approach Pepper, a four-foot-tall robot, she starts sizing you up. Thanks to facial recognition capabilities, Pepper can determine your gender and age bracket. And as you begin asking her questions, she can draw from a vast volume of cloud-based information to give what she thinks are relevant answers. If you smile, she can tell the conversation is going well and that you're finding her answers helpful. If you don't, she might ask you if she's misunderstanding your requests.

Pepper's maker, Softbank Robotics, has a vision of a world in which many retailers incorporate this technology into brick-and-mortar stores, in which it feels normal and reflexive for you to approach a robot with customer service questions. It's part of a wider push across the retail industry to bring more automation and data science to one of the few parts of the business that largely remains an art: the act of making a sale. washingtonpost.com

Webinar: The transformation of biometric technology
Thursday, Jan 19 at 1pm ET
We used to hear about iris or facial recognition only in movies, but not anymore. If you have a smartphone, it's safe to say, biometric authentication is a commonly installed feature. While biometric technology is no stranger to the security industry, the technology has transformed. During this webcast, attendees will hear from our sponsors, Princeton Identity and MorphoTrak, about how security biometric applications are being deployed. Don't miss this first installment in the 2017 Emerging Technologies Series. There is no cost to attend. Register here.

CISO of Netsurion and EventTracker Named to PCI SSC Small Merchant Task Force

Retail POS Terminals Market to Hit $45bn by 2024: Global Market Insights Inc.

		WG's Ninja Tag Revolutionizing Box Security
Dramatically Improve Efficiency, Shrink & Sales

Let's get a test started in your stores in Q1!

Call now 408.241.8000 or email.

Protecting Organizations, Amplifying Profits
The expanding role of Canadian LP professionals to help drive retail success
No longer focused exclusively on playing cop, today's loss prevention professional is increasingly looking to help grow corporate profits through closer interdepartmental collaboration and a more proactive use of technology. This was the prevailing takeaway from Retail Council of Canada's latest Loss Prevention Conference.

Retailers a cyber target
"Retailers are being targeted. We all read about major attacks in the media, but there's a lot out there that doesn't make it to the media for many different reasons," said Colleen Merchant, Director General of National Cyber Security with Public Safety Canada. "There are also companies that don't have the capacity for good cyber-security, and they don't even know that their networks have been compromised, and data is being sucked out of their network."

Of particular worry is the rise in data breaches, much of it by organized crime.

CCTV does double duty
Not only do loss prevention professionals seek to bolster their retailers' online safety, they also need to keep up the fight to secure their physical stores. For many, that means stepping up investments in digital video surveillance.

The systems do double duty. Cameras act to deter theft and - as a result of their superior picture quality compared to analog counterparts - aid in post-incident investigations, including slip-and-fall fraud.

Big data's heavy load
For some retailers, the amount and complexity of available data is intimidating.

Said Dr. David Speights, Chief Data Scientist with The Retail Equation: "If the market is not ready for something that's too advanced, they don't use it." Familiarity is a factor according to Dr. Ready Hayes, Director of the Loss Prevention Research Council.

"I still talk to people who are going to seven or eight different sources to pull together one report," noted Cory Adams, Vice President of Global Client Services with Sysrepublic. "That's our big push - to try and integrate all the data from all these different locations to put in one platform."

Loss prevention success for Sears
The power of analytics was illuminated in a Sears Canada case study by Don Berezowski, Divisional Vice President, Loss Prevention & Safety, and Matthew Robertson, Corporate Manager, Loss Prevention - Inventory & Investigations and Retail Organized Crime.

The initiative started with a couple of core activities, dubbed ORCA (Organized Retail Crime Analytics) and BOLO (Be On the Look Out), a national alert database. The ORCA component began with compiling POS data, looking for trends and adapting the reports daily with an ever-expanding list of variables.

Robertson said they can analyze data in such a way that a fraudster can come in and do a transaction at one store, go down the road to another store, and so on to the third. "We can notify the fourth store before the fraud is even attempted." The results to date? Last year alone, the reduction in shrink grew Sears Canada's bottom line by $5.2 million.

If there was one clear message that came out of RCC's 2016 Loss Prevention Conference, it's that the role and responsibility of today's loss prevention professional is critical in ensuring the continued health and growth of retailers' bottom lines. nxtbook.com

Retail Council of Canada Releases First-Ever Canadian Shopping Centre Study
Canadian Malls See More Sales Per Square Foot Than U.S.
The study ranks Canada's top shopping centres by sales per square foot, with Toronto's Yorkdale Shopping Centre ranking first with a productivity of almost $1651. Vancouver's Oakridge Centre ranked second with annual sales per square foot of $1,537, followed by Vancouver's CF Pacific Centre with a productivity of $1,523 per square foot.

Canada's 10 largest shopping centres are revealed in the study and, with no surprise, West Edmonton Mall is first. Toronto's CF Toronto Eaton Centre ranked second in size, partly due to the vast size of its Hudson's Bay building component, which also houses Canada's 170,000 square foot flagship Saks Fifth Avenue store.

The Retail Council of Canada study then ranks Canada's top 10 busiest malls by annual visitors (aka 'footfall'). Remarkably, CF Toronto Eaton Centre, with almost 50 million visitors, sees more people annually than the Las Vegas Strip, Disneyland and Disney World combined, and almost as many as New York City's Times Square. The Toronto mall is the busiest in North America, with Honolulu's Ala Moana Center and Minneapolis' Mall of America trailing by eight and 10 million annual visitors, respectively.

The study notes, referencing statistics from International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC), that Canadian malls are, on average, more productive in terms of sales per square foot than those in the United States. Canadian malls averaged $744 (Canadian) per square foot in 2016, while US malls averaged US $466 per square foot. retailer-insider.com

Amazon Canada to change pricing practices, pay $1.1M fine
Amazon will pay a $1 million Canadian penalty as well as $100,000 towards the Competition Bureau's costs as part of an agreement announced Wednesday resolving the Canadian government agency's concerns with the retailer's pricing practices on its Canadian website.

Amazon's list price comparisons, which the Competition Bureau (a body analogous to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission) says created the impression that the prices were lower than prevailing market prices, but were not verified as accurate. The savings claims were advertised on Amazon's Canadian website, its mobile applications, in other online advertisements and in emails to customers, the bureau said.

Amazon has already changed its price listing policy for its Canadian website (and elsewhere). Those changes, plus the penalty, are part of a consent agreement that is registered with the Competition Tribunal and has the force of a court order, according to the bureau. retaildive.com

NYC Based Theory to Open Stores in Canada
In the United States, the retailer operates 22 full-priced stores and 24 outlets. Theory also wholesales in upscale retailers globally. Theory fashions can be found in retailers including selected Hudson's Bay, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Holt Renfrew locations.

Theory is seeking out retail locations in the 3,000 square foot to 4,000 square foot range, with spaces to be considered both on high streets as well as in enclosed shopping malls. retailinsider.com

One to watch
Arizia reports 20% jump in revenue in fiscal Q3
Comparable sales increased 15.2%, and gross profit increased almost 30% to $82.3 million. Year-to-date, revenue was up 25.5% to $470.8 million.

In addition to delivering another quarter of double-digit comparable sales growth, we continued to make progress on our growth plans, including the expansion of our North American store footprint and increased penetration of our ecommerce business."

Editor's Note: They staffed a VP of LP and have been building an LP team. biv.com

The ten best Toronto store openings of 2016

Simons to make its Calgary debut in March

McDonald's all-day breakfast coming to Canada

Solution Providers: Have a video or commercial you want to publish? Contact us

Alibaba Forms Anticounterfeiting Alliance With Louis Vuitton, Swarovski
and Others
Alibaba Group said Monday that it is forming a 20-member alliance of companies to fight the sale of counterfeit products. The e-commerce giant said Louis Vuitton, Samsung, Swarovski, Mars and Huawei are members of the new group, dubbed the "Alibaba Big Data Anticounterfeiting Alliance."

Alibaba, which has been criticized for the prevalence of fake products on its platforms, said the new group will "foster industry collaboration and promote the use of big data and technology in the global fight against counterfeits." The Chinese company's new connection with Louis Vuitton is particularly noteworthy given Alibaba's past track record with luxury goods companies.

"The most powerful weapon against counterfeiting today is data and analytics, and the only way we can win this war is to unite," said Jessie Zheng, chief platform governance officer of Alibaba Group. "Alibaba welcomes brands and other organizations in the creation of the world's first Big Data Anticounterfeiting Alliance. With our robust data capabilities, we are confident the alliance will accelerate the digital transformation in our global fight against counterfeits." wwd.com

Amazon Is Losing To Chinese Counterfeiters Because Their HR Strategy
Is Broken
Amazon's counterfeit problem grew exponentially when the marketplace began to aggressively target Chinese sellers in 2015. To help cut out the import/export middlemen and allow Chinese manufacturers and merchants to sell directly to buyers in the USA, Canada, and Europe, Amazon streamlined the shipping process by doing things like registering with the Federal Maritime Commission to provide ocean freight, which allowed for Chinese merchants to ship entire containers directly to Amazon's fulfillment warehouses.

Contrary to the way it sometimes may seem from browsing the site, Amazon does have a very complex system in place for weeding out counterfeits. These processes range from taking action based off of buyer and seller complaints to a sophisticated algorithm that spiders through all the pages on the site, flagging potential counterfeits and dumping them into a massive queue for fraud prevention teams to inspect manually. It is in this later stage where the system appears to break down.

Michael Jakubek, who worked on Amazon's fraud and abuse prevention teams between 2004 and 2012, stated bluntly that the quality of the Amazon marketplace comes down to the quality of these manual investigations. He posits that one of the main reasons why so many counterfeit listings continue falling through the gaps of Amazon's quality control dragnet is that these investigation teams are not simply being trained or administered properly.

Another major reason for the lapses in quality control when it comes to counterfeits is the fact that Amazon endures an extremely high rate of employee turnover. forbes.com

Watch Out for Thieves Posing as Legit Amazon Sellers
Earlier this month, posts on the Comparitech blog and Naked Security news site revealed that a new phishing scam has been duping Amazon shoppers.

Sc-Elegance reportedly posted listings of high-end electronic products marked as "Used - Like new." At the sight of irresistible and heavily discounted price offers, gullible shoppers added the items to their carts. But, when checkout time came, the buyers were notified that there were problems with their orders.

The fraudulent merchant then emailed the buyers, telling them that it was all a boo-boo on the seller's part and that stocks were still available at a different location. The email provided a link to a payment page that, to an untrained eye, looked like an authentic Amazon page but was actually designed to collect personal and financial information from buyers. techlicious.com
 

Sioux Falls, SD: Retail crime a growing problem, threat for businesses
The calls from business owners come early and often to emergency dispatchers in Sioux Falls. About every two hours, every day, Sioux Falls police respond to businesses that have become victims of a crime. The cases they investigate are wide-ranging: ATMs being dislodged from entryways, thousands of dollars in merchandise stolen overnight and employees who tussle with shoplifters. And the number of incidents keeps growing. Sioux Falls police report a 25 percent increase in theft calls in the past five years. "Our caseloads in property crimes have increased, and I think those retail crimes are a big portion of that," said Sgt. Paul Creviston of the Sioux Falls Police property crimes division. Creviston leads a coalition made up of about a dozen large and small retailers in the city. At monthly meetings, law enforcement and business owners share information and photos about recent offenders they have encountered. The city's biggest retailers attract the majority of the crime in Sioux Falls: The Empire Mall, Wal-Mart stores, Target and West Mall. The Empire Mall called police about 600 times in 2015, and there were about 300 calls to the West Mall retail center at 41st Street and West Avenue. Creviston, of the Sioux Falls Police Department, said officers are aware of the threat of organized retail crime. The police department keeps in contact with other agencies - including in the Twin Cities - to keep abreast of any groups making their way through the region, he said. "Has it happened? Yes," he said. "But it's very infrequent." argusleader.com

Columbus, OH: City Attorney says Shoplifting trends down as diligence goes up
For the first time in six years, the number of shoplifting thefts in Columbus has decreased. It's certainly a positive development for law-enforcement officials, said Bill Hedrick, the assistant city attorney who tracks such statistics. "I think it's great news," Hedrick said. "I'm happy they're not going up because the pattern was going up every year."

The Columbus City Attorney's Office, which prosecutes misdemeanor crimes, filed a total of 3,625 theft charges last year, a decrease of 21 percent from the 4,590 charges filed in 2015. The total value of merchandise stolen decreased from $695,527 in 2015 to $587,198 in 2016. The number of first-time offenders caught stealing also dropped significantly last year, plunging almost 25 percent from 875 in 2015 to 670 in 2016. Another statistic that decreased in 2016 was the number of cases involving thefts of items worth more than $500.

Because the state legislature raised the felony theft limit from $500 to $1,000 in 2012, Columbus prosecutors had seen high-dollar misdemeanor thefts more than double to an all-time high in 2015. That number decreased almost 25 percent in 2016. thisweeknews.com

Tempe, AZ: Credit-card scheme targeted ill, dead account holders; 150 victims, $300,000 in purchases
A 34-year-old Tempe man has been arrested in connection with a credit-card fraud scheme targeting more than 150 account holders who either were ill or had recently died, authorities say. Jason Siebert-Thomas is accused of using victims' personal information to obtain duplicate credit cards and make more than $300,000 in fraudulent purchases, the Tempe Police Department say. Silbert-Thomas was arrested at his home Jan. 12, and police on Tuesday said they are still looking for associates who helped him carry out the fraud scheme. So far, multiple victims have been identified in Tempe, Paradise Valley and Glendale, police said. Police say they are still looking for possible victims. azcentral.com

Steubenville, OH: Police believe 'Pruitt Gang' strikes at Lowe's; loss of over $5,000
On Tuesday afternoon, Steubenville Police received a call in regards to a possible theft at the Lowe's along Mall Drive. It was reported that a group of black females entered the store and filled five to six purses of merchandise valuing approximately $1,000 each. One of the purses was wrestled from one of the suspects by a loss prevention officer in the parking lot, but they were able to escape. According to the report, these females are known as the "Pruitt Gang," and have been involved in these types of thefts throughout the tri-state area. wtov9.com

North Adams, MA: Distraction Thieves arrested after stealing $500 in cigarettes from Cumberland Farms
A city couple allegedly worked in tandem to steal more than $500 in cigarettes from the Cumberland Farms on Union Street earlier this month. Ashley Labelle, 25, would distract a store employee by asking about its pizza while Christopher Letalien, 32, would sneak behind the counter and steal cigarettes, according to police. berkshireeagle.com

Boca Raton, FL: Woman used kids, ages 7 and 8, to steal from Macy's; $1,700 in merchandise 

Shootings, Assault & Deaths

Orlando, FL: Accused Police killer Markeith Loyd captured; Officer was killed 9 days ago in a Walmart parking lot
Markeith Loyd, a fugitive who eluded police for nine days after authorities said he shot killed an Orlando police officer in a Walmart parking lot, was captured late Tuesday. The arrest brings to a close one of the largest manhunts in recent memory for central Florida. Markeith Loyd faces multiple charges, including two counts of first degree murder in connection with the deaths of his girlfriend and her unborn child. Other charges are pending in the police shooting. usatoday.com

Edmond, OK: Man killed in shooting outside Braum's fast-food restaurant
A man was killed in a shooting Tuesday night outside an Edmond fast-food restaurant. The shooting was reported shortly before 8:30 p.m. at the Braum's parking lot near Interstate 35 and 15th Street. "It appears that the victim had some sort of altercation with a black male suspect here in the parking lot," Edmond Police Sgt. James Hamm said. Police said the shooter is not in custody. okcfox.com


Dallas, TX: Police release suspect images in violent Target assault
Police in Dallas have released images of two suspects in an attack that left a Dallas theater director in the intensive care unit. Derrick Whitener, who works at The Firehouse Theatre, was attacked late Saturday night after he reported that there were two suspicious people around the entrance of the Target, located on North Haskell Avenue around 11:05 p.m. The suspects were both asked to leave the property just before they attacked Whitener. wfaa.com


Cancun, Mexico: Four dead in new shooting in Mexico's Caribbean resort region
Gunmen attacked the state prosecutors' office in this Caribbean resort city Tuesday, and authorities said four people were killed, ratcheting up tensions just a day after a shooting at a music festival in a nearby town left three foreigners and two Mexicans dead. It was too early to say if the attacks were linked, but they were a marked intrusion of bloodshed into Mexico's main tourism zone, a region that had previously been spared much of the violence plaguing other parts of the country. The governor of Quintana Roo state, Carlos Joaquin, said three attackers and one police officer died in Tuesday's incident. He said five suspected attackers were taken into custody. He urged calmed, saying the federal government was sending more security forces to the region. Hundreds of people fled the Plaza de Las Americas shopping center after possibly hearing gunfire inside. It wasn't clear what happened, or if any shots were fired, but soldiers swarmed into the mall. spokesman.com

Robberies & Thefts

Reno, NV: Man sentenced to life in prison in 7-Eleven robbery, shooting
A Reno man will spend the rest of his life in prison for robbery and attempting to murder a woman who was shot in the head at a 7-Eleven store in March. Kevin Scott Clausen, 52, was sentenced by Judge Lynne Simons to four concurrent counts of life in prison without the possibility of parole at a hearing Friday at the Washoe County District Court. rgj.com

Salt Lake City, UT: 4 face federal charges in series of robberies that led to downtown chase
Four men face federal charges in a series of Salt Lake County business robberies in September, including one in which police reported a shot was fired at an employee. The four men, all from Salt Lake City, are named in indictments Tuesday. An initial hearing is set for Wednesday at 1 p.m. in U.S. District Court. According to the charges, two of the men played a role in six robberies between Sept. 10 and Sept. 12, all occurring in Salt Lake City, West Valley City or West Jordan. desertnews.com



Oklahoma City, OK: New video shows vehicle smash-and-grab burglary at Kay Jewelers
OKCPD has released surveillance video of a metro Kay Jewelers burglary where suspects used a car to smash through the front of the store. Store surveillance video shows the suspects then uncovering cases in the store and removing jewelry. The burglary happened on Jan. 5 at the store in the Outlet Mall on W. Reno. okcfox.com


Green Bay, WI: Police arrest Armed Robber of Walgreens after he falls on ice

Pagoda in the Sawgrass Mills Outlet, Sunrise, FL reported a Grab & Run on 1/17, item valued at $239

Kay Jewelers in the McCain Mall, North Little Rock, AR reported a Grab & Run on 1/17, item valued at $3,899

Daniel's Jewelers in The Promenade in Temecula, Temecula, CA reported a Distraction Theft on 1/11, item valued at $9,000

Zales in the South County Center, St. Louis, MO reported a Grab & Run on 1/14, item valued at $2,388

Kay Jewelers in the Town Center at Laurel, Laurel, MD reported a Grab & Run on 1/15, item valued at $6,199

Piercing Pagoda in the Cottonwood Mall, Albuquerque, NM reported a Grab & Run on 1/14, item valued at $799

Peoples Jewellers in the Sunridge Mall, Calgary, AB, CN reported a Grab & Run on 1/14, item valued at $1,999

Kay Jewelers in the Northpointe Shopping Canter, Zanesville, OH reported a Grab & Run on 1/14, item valued at $4,699

Zales Outlet in the Portofino Shopping Center, Shenendoah TX reported an Armed Robbery on 1/12, merchandise valued at $56,000

Arson

UPDATE: Yakima, WA: Bi-Mart fire estimated at more than $1 million in damages
Authorities say a fire that caused an estimated $1 million damage at the Bi-Mart store on North 40th Avenue early Tuesday morning was deliberately set and may have stemmed from a burglary. Evidence suggests it was arson, said Capt. Jeff Pfaff, spokesman for the Yakima Fire Department, which is working with police to determine the exact cause of the fire and where it started. Firefighters were called to the store on 40th Ave., at 2:15 a.m. on a report that water was flowing in the building's sprinkler system. Arriving crews found smoke coming from the back of the building and cardboard boxes burning in a second-story storage area. yakimaherald.com

Counterfeit Goods

Jacksonville, FL: Customs agents seize record number of counterfeit items; Goods would have been worth more than $1.38 Billion if genuine
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers said they've seized a record number of shipments containing illegal, phony goods totaling more than $1 billion. Most of the items came through the mail from overseas. Across the U.S. in 2016, officers seized goods that, if genuine, would be worth more than $1.38 billion. That number comes from more than 31,000 cases. Officers arrested 451 people in relation to the crimes. news4jax.com

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