Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi Friday proposed a plan intended to stop organized retail theft  Attorney General Pam Bondi today announced a legislative proposal intended to stop organized retail theft, a type of organized crime that ultimately leaves consumers paying higher prices as a result of businesses’ losses. State Rep. Ross Spano advanced House Bill 1173 and state Sen. Kelli Stargel posed Senate Bill 1404 to enhance the penalties and stiffen sentencing guidelines for an organized retail theft exceeding $50,000. The new organized retail theft charges would equal first-degree grand theft with a baseline sentence of 21 months in prison. In order to crack down on this illegal industry, our laws against such offences need to be strengthened. I am excited to sponsor legislation that enhances the Florida Communications Fraud Act and to work with Attorney General Bondi in addressing this issue on behalf of Florida's businesses and consumers," said Stargel. (Source gasparillagazette.com) (Source myfloridalegal.com)



Update: 4 Mount Pleasant Men Charged With Shoplifting - ORC  Three men arrested for home invasion last week are now charged with shoplifting from several stores in Isabella County. Now police say all four stole merchandise from Dunham's, Meijer, Dick's Sporting Goods, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart in Mount Pleasant over a six month span. (Source 9and10news.com)




Three suspects arrested at Target, the focus of investigation for hitting both San Pedro and Hawthorne stores back in January.  The group of four people in the video from January shopped the Target store, selecting things from nearly every department. When they went to the register and the total of the two carts full of merchandise was valued at over $1000. When one of the suspects wrote a check it was refused, and  the three of the suspects had already pushed the carts out the door. The merchandise was loaded into a van, and then they snatched the check writer from the front of the store waiting with Loss Prevention. (Source dailynews.com)