Summit police bust shoplifting ring

Summit County sheriff's deputies have busted a retail shoplifting ring believed to have pilfered more than $11,000 in merchandise from the area's outlet stores.

Two people were booked into the Summit County Jail last week after an employee at a Ralph Lauren Polo store spotted a shoplifting in progress and called police.

"They observed an individual come out of the store with a bag and watched him empty the contents from the bag into the vehicle and come back in with the bag," Summit County Sheriff's Capt. Sherm Farnsworth said Thursday.

Deputies arrested two of the four people believed to be shoplifting. Inside the van, deputies found stolen clothes, shoes and other merchandise hidden underneath a tarp. Eduardo Torres, 31, and Elena Garcia, 24, were booked into jail on investigation of retail theft.

It's the fourth high-dollar heist in four years specifically targeting the outlet shops in Kimball Junction, which tout designer clothes at discount prices.

"They go in and target these places. They systematically rip them off," Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds said. "They'll spend two or three days or longer doing this and take their hoard back to California."

From there, the stolen merchandise usually is sold at flea markets.

"It's sheer profit for them, so if they sell it at 70 percent of its retail value, it's 100 percent profit for them," the sheriff said.

The problem has become so bad that the Summit County Sheriff's Office has put together a retail theft strike force with the intent of cracking down on the shoplifting sprees. Plainclothes detectives will go into the stores pretending to be browsing customers and watch for shoplifters.

Police believe the professional shoplifting rings are targeting the outlet malls because of their high concentration of retail and the convenient getaway route along I-80.

They stay away from the posh Main Street in Park City, focusing instead on the "five finger discounts" at the outlet malls in Kimball Junction. Edmunds said they have noticed the shoplifters spend days working the area — renting cars and staying in local hotels.

"They are not novices. They are professionals," he said. "They use distractionary measures. They divide up. They are systematically approaching this thing as a business. It's a very profitable, organized crime-type situation."

That makes it harder to combat, the sheriff admits.