By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the AFRO
While shoplifting is a major concern for businesses throughout the year, it’s even more of a challenge during the holiday season. Both community stakeholders and law enforcement officials have now turned their attention to thieves who repeatedly steal from area businesses.
Jeff Wojcik, deputy chief in general crimes for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia (USAODC), said there’s an initiative underway which specifically targets repeat shoplifters. Wojcik said that under the direction of U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who leads the D.C. office, authorities are doubling down on those who break the law by stealing. Repeat shoplifters could face felony charges and significantly more time behind bars if arrested and convicted.
Office for the District of Columbia setting new penalties for repeat offenders. (Credit: Unsplash/ Krisztina Papp)
“People are beyond frustrated with retail theft in our stores – they don’t like to see items like shampoo locked up behind glass doors in stores like CVS or Walgreens,” Wojcik said. “People are also sick of paying for meals or [having] items delivered only to find that they’ve been stolen – often right off their front porches.”
Wojcik noted that there is already a statute on the books to go after shoplifters who are repeat offenders, referencing Title 22, Section 3212 of the D.C. Code.
“The Code has a provision which addresses a person who is convicted of theft on two or more occasions,” he said. “Typically, that means the offender has gone before two judges and been convicted but even if they’ve gone before the same judge, the law allows for a minimum/maximum sentence of no less than one year and no more than 15 years.”
Wojcik said his office has received many complaints from shoppers, business owners – even from local law enforcement. The complaints are often accompanied by high quality videos that have captured the thieves in action.
“People may believe that retail theft, either happening in businesses or at people’s homes, is no big deal but it is– and it’s gotten much worse,” he said. “In the building in which I live, we had one person who routinely went into our mailroom and ‘shopped.’ He gutted our right to receive our mail and items for which we had paid, ordered and expected to be delivered to our place of residence. Now, after having gone before a judge at least twice for the same charge, he’s spending the next seven years in jail.”
Wojcik emphasized that the new initiative does not include more organized groups responsible for “smash and grabs” which is covered by a different statute in the D.C. Code, nor does it cover people who may steal a relatively inexpensive item like juice or water out of immediate need.
“We understand that when people fall upon hard times, they may take an item because of thirst or hunger from a store and know that they have no means to pay for the item,” he said. “And while they, too, are breaking the law, they’re not the ones we’re after. We’re going after repeat offenders who have made a job out of shoplifting and reselling stolen goods for profit.”
Since Sept. 1, 2023, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has indicted 56 cases involving a felony second-degree theft charge based on a defendant’s two or more prior theft convictions, not from the same occasion. Earlier this year, in announcing the indictments and the sentencing, Graves and D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith commended the work of those investigating the case from MPD and the USAODC.
Retailers report troubling rise in theft at the hands of dangerous offenders
Recent data from the National Federation of Retailers (NFR) indicates that there’s been a sharp rise, nationwide, in both the frequency and scale of retail crimes, most notably those which include organized groups like numerous examples of “smash and grabs” that have garnered headline news in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia in recent years.
In a statement from NFR, officials reported record losses in 2022 and said that as retail crime has escalated across the nation, retailers have seen a dramatic jump in financial losses associated with theft. When taken as a percentage of total retail sales in 2022, shrink accounted for $112 billion in losses, up from $93.9 billion in 2021, according to the 2023 National Retail Security Survey recently released by the NRF.
“Retailers are seeing unprecedented levels of theft coupled with rampant crime in their stores, and the situation is only becoming more dire,” NRF Vice President for Asset Protection and Retail Operations David Johnston said in a statement. “Far beyond the financial impact of these crimes, the violence and concerns over safety continue to be the priority for all retailers, regardless of size or category.”
Representative Glenn Ivey, D-Md. agreed that organized retail crime has become an issue that continues to frustrate retailers and said offenders have become far more sophisticated than in the past.
“The problem is becoming bigger and bigger and that has made it hard for local prosecutors to address,” Ivey said in a statement, adding that with coordinated efforts between retailers and law enforcement he’s seeing positive results.
“The benefit is the coordination,” Ivey said. “A lot of times you’ll have these criminal acts going on in different jurisdictions and sometimes there are challenges in making sure that law enforcement in one area understands what’s going on in other places as well.”
Repeat shoplifting offenders warned to close shop
Readers may recall the recent arrest of Craig Wilson, a D.C. resident arrested for allegedly stealing nearly $7,000 worth of merchandise from multiple CVS locations in Northwest Washington, D.C, according to MPD. Wilson is accused of 23 retail theft incidents which occurred between June 19 and Sept. 9 and currently faces 23 counts of second-degree theft.
Wojcik said offenders like Wilson are the kind of shoplifters his office has its eye on.
“Again, we want the public to understand that our initiative focuses on repeat offenders,” said Wojcik. “We’re considering how many times one is shoplifting, if they’re trying to make a job of this –if they are taking the stuff and reselling it– or, if they’re doing it because they are in a desperate spot. [There are] very different factors and very different people.”
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