Asheville, N.C., police chief says ORC boosters are the driving force behind a 46% surge in larcenies over the past year. "There are lots of organized retail theft rings that come through this area," Capt. Tim Splain said, "And we want to capture all that." And Officers have been doing a better job of reporting thefts, Capt. Tim Splain and other commanding officers said in a press conference that was called for by Chief William Anderson when reporting the last 12-month period of crime statistics. Police are paying more attention to organized retail theft in various ways, including the way they report it. Nearly a year ago, officers had the choice not to write a full report. Now, they are required to file all paperwork, even for small larcenies. That is what is behind the growth from 2,577 larcenies two years ago to 3,769 this past year, a 46 percent increase. Thieves often move from town to town, staying in hotels, police say. They have studied the ins-and-outs of how the retail chains operate and will use that and other tricks to lift merchandise from the stores. They then resell the items or exchange them at another store in the chain or sell the goods online. In one case, a group of men changed into women’s clothing while in the store and then changed after grabbing items. "It was a cross-dressing shoplifting crew," Anderson said. (Source citizen-times.com)

The Mexican Connection - For the third time this year, authorities have arrested a group of Mexican ORC foreigners going on shopping sprees in San Antonio, Houston and West Texas with fake credit cards. All three groups are from Mexico and flew or drove to Texas for their alleged crimes, spawning investigations that stretched across two countries. The three groups may not have been connected but they all were after clothing, electronics and reloadable gift cards. The groups resemble operations of "organized retail crime." In the three cases, the suspects told authorities they were planning to sell the items once they returned to Mexico at flea markets or their small retail shops. The suspects made trial runs and picked up their 72 fake cards from a man in a bar in Mexico City that they were going to split with him the merchandise or its profits, court records said. They also had used five cards in a previous shopping spree at the outlet stores in San Marcos. They had returned, court records said, to buy more merchandise at the San Marcos stores and an outlet near Houston when agents arrested them May 15 at San Antonio International Airport. One suspect admitted to making four trips with as many as 200 fake cards that they had mailed to themselves in San Antonio. Another group busted crossing the border into the U.S. had 363 fake credit and debit cards, seven fake Mexican drivers licenses, and 41 gift cards. (Source mysanantonio.com)

Two indicted for organized retail theft in Kingman, AZ. after theft from local Wal-Mart store. A Bullhead City man and woman were indicted Thursday on seven charges for stealing items including a TV from Wal-Mart. Not a big incident but the male has a history and might be worth identifying for your teams in the stores. (Source mohavedailynews.com)