Vancouver police believe goods worth $250,000 were stolen for sale at illegal 'apartment store'  Police recovered around $250,000 in suspected stolen property last week inside a Vancouver apartment that was operating as an “underground retail sales centre." Officers went to an east Vancouver apartment building on Dec. 7, acting on a tip from the anti-fencing unit that stolen property was being sold there. Police said Wednesday the apartment was stocked with thousands of items of suspected stolen merchandise, organized into different sections as one would find at a legitimate retail store. There were racks of men’s and women’s clothes, expensive, name-brand winter coats, designer jeans, and high-end wallets, purses and sunglasses. A second room was dedicated to children’s clothing. The apartment even included a changing room for customers to try on articles of clothing. The illegal store, probably advertised by word of mouth and online, was doing brisk business. Police observed dozens of customers an hour passing through the property to shop, said patrol officer Const. Brian Hobbs, who was at scene. Officers also saw people coming to the apartment to drop off bags of suspected stolen merchandise to sell. more organized kind of shoplifting seems to be especially prevalent the Vancouver area, O’Keefe said — and it’s on the rise. "Organized crime for the purpose of resale, I would say, is higher ...in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland,” O’Keefe said. “Right now, it’s a little bit of a hotbed. It seems like it’s on the rise this year. There’s been a lot more activity that police have identified, that retailers have complained about in terms of some of the organized gangs out there." (Source theprovince.com)

5 adults, 2 teens - ORC ring arrested for stealing thousands from Gallatin, Tenn., Walmart  Investigators say 37-year-old Jenny Andrews and her 31-year-old husband Christopher Andrews is the mastermind behind the shoplifting ring. According to police, the Andrews dropped off the younger members of the group, which included their 20-year-old daughter, two of her friends and two minors, at the store and waited for them to return with cart loads of stolen merchandise. Police said the group of shoplifters was ultimately identified by surveillance video. Gallatin police are working to determine if the group is suspects in other similar crimes. (Source wkrn.com)

Two suspects busted buying $4,000 worth of iPads with stolen credit cards at Best Buy in Paramus, N.J.  2 suspects were at the Best Buy store, located at the Garden State Plaza Shopping Center, attempting to purchase $4000.00 worth of IPad Airs and video games with several credit card accounts that were reported stolen. The Paramus Police Department announces the arrests of Nelson Rodriguez, 41 yoa, of Bronx, NY and Rafael Batista, 41 yoa, of Bronx, NY, for robbery, assault on a police officer and credit card fraud. On Tuesday, December 10, 2013. (Source paramuspost.com)

Two California male suspects hit Washington Square Mall in Portland, Ore., with fake credit cards - may be connected to same west coast gang  Two men have been arrested for using counterfeit credit cards at Washington Square, the third set of similar arrests in the past three months. Two suspects were arrested on Wednesday, Dec. 4, after going on a shopping spree at Washington Square mall and in Portland using fraudulent credit cards. Each case has involved California residents in their 20s and 30s allegedly making thousands of dollars worth of purchases at Washington Square mall using fake credit cards. “The general public is not aware of how prevalent this is right now,” Wolf said. “The use of counterfeit credit cards is plaguing the retail industry. But we have been fortunate — with information sharing among law enforcement and retailers. This is a great example of how those corroborations can work.” Wolf said it’s unclear what has brought the increase in cases to Tigard. “That is a question that law enforcement is unable to answer,” Wolf said. “We are not sure why, all of a sudden, people are coming up from California on these shopping sprees in the Northwest." (Source portlandtribune.com)

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