By Shirah Matsuzawa
January 9, 2020
In honor of Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, Home Depot thanked the officers who tracked down the stolen tools.
BOISE, Idaho — Organized retail crime cost retailers nearly $778,000 for every $1 billion in sales in 2018, according to a National Retail Federation Survey.
In Boise, the Boise Police Department and Home Depot are working together to fight that crime.
“We have folks that come here from outside the area not knowing what partnerships are in place here, only to find out that when they go in and target one store and then go to another retailer that there’s often officers waiting there to arrest them for the offense that they just committed,” said Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson.
On Thursday, in honor of Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, Home Depot thanked the Boise Police Department after its officers recovered $14,000 worth of stolen tools, most of them power tools.
“It’s easy and quick to get rid of, quick for thieves to sell on the open market for money,” said Home Depot’s Multi Asset Protection Manager Beau Lachance.
“We really enjoy being able to get the merchandise back to the stores because in reality the stores aren’t the only victims, the citizens of Boise are also the victims because in reality the stores are just going to raise its prices if they continue to see these losses,” said Boise Police Department’s Organized Crime Retail Investigator Adam Schloegel.
Which is where pawn shops, like Boise Pawn come in. When someone comes in with an item, owner JT Newton told KTVB, they take note of the serial number.
“It actually goes into a national database called Leads Online and from there that’s 50 states, so whether the item was stolen here or in another state it all goes to the same database, and then from there it goes to the police department,” Newton said.
That’s how police managed to recover these stolen tools.
“If you’re going to steal from our local stores, we will find you,” Schloegel said.
Source: https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/crime/boise-police-stolen-theft-tools-home-depot-recovered-found/277-a1d08139-1dae-45ee-bade-54a989a352e5