The Kent Police Department recently conducted an undercover theft emphasis at a local Lowe’s store, and officials say it was successful.
Here’s more from Kent P.D.:
“We’ve had some very aggressive thefts occurring in a few of our stores; many of them leading to assaults when a store employee tries to object to the five-fingered discounts. Your KPD Patrol Officers have been brainstorming ways to combat this trend. It is costly to the business and impacts the safety for the store’s employees.
“KPD Patrol Officer Steiner has taken many of these theft reports and decided to try something a bit different. He contacted our Kent Lowe’s and partnered with them on an undercover theft emphasis.
“We don’t want to give away all our tactics, but suffice it to say this operation was quite successful. Our KPD/Lowes’ team charged 5 suspects for theft, arrested 2 on felony warrants, 3 on misdemeanor warrants, gave 6 trespass warning, (so we can arrest them if they return, before they try to steal anything), and arrested 1 on criminal trespass. They recovered over $1000 of stolen property.
“This was a grassroots effort, spearheaded by Officer Steiner and well supported by his co-workers and the Lowes’ employees who were eager to help.
“We want to thank all of them, and we want to convey to our future would-be thieves that this won’t be the last emphasis. No, we won’t tell you where the next one will be or when will return to Lowes. So now would be a good time to quit stealing. Just stop.”
Photos courtesy Kent Police Department.
The stealing is everywhere. I watched a silver mustang driven by a blonde sit in her car waiting until a young man came out of the store with a full cart at tjmax, Walgreens and even Petco. They were discussing getting Fred Meyers and home Depot still that day . Amazingly, I just happened to be at Target later that evening when once again out strolls the young man right passed me and quickly unloaded item after item into the mustang. The craziest thing is when I was telling someone I know what I’d seen that day- before I even finished telling her, she interrupted me saying ” omg the blonde in the silver mustang” – she already knew who I was talking about because apparently that couple regularly does that at the target she works at in Tacoma! It’s absolutely insane they are getting away with this !