Retail thefts soaring as the economy slides

Ken Beckstrom wishes he could see what his security cameras must have captured a few weeks ago: Thieves so desperate for loot that they risked the possibility of jail time to pillage through shelves of $1 items at his Just A Buck store in Roy.

But he won't get that chance. They carried off the security videotapes with the candy bars.

"Cleaned out," Beckstrom said. "It's that simple, and the rest of us can just drop dead for all they care."

The moonlit heist a few weeks ago hit him hard enough that it killed his business. He let his nine employees go after he opened his doors for one last time in late December to try to sell the sparse inventory that remained.

Seldom is a business hit with a one-time theft bad enough to bankrupt it, but Beckstrom and many other retailers in Utah are now more vulnerable to that possibility.

Retailers are offering steep discounts and low prices in this recession-stricken economy. But a growing crowd of Utahns don't want to shop for less — they want to shop for free.

Data from police agencies across the state show a strong correlation between the free-fall curve of the continuing economic slump and a sharp spike in the state's retail theft rate.

"I am absolutely positive there's a relationship," said Jim Wood, economist with the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. "When you don't have a job and your 4-year-old wants or needs something, it's tough for people."

Apparently, it's tough for retailers, too. The Global Retail Theft Barometer found that U.S. retailers spent close to $12 billion in 2007 on attempts to curb the growing theft trend. But loss-prevention experts say companies may not have the money to keep fighting as hard in 2009.

Jack Trlica, editor of Loss Prevention Magazine, says it's an unfortunate irony that when retailers need security the most, shortfalls in their budgets may be allowing them less. "It's a cycle — a vicious one," he said.

Trlica said executives have two choices: "If they are forward-thinking and understand the long-term benefits, they won't touch, and may increase, their loss-prevention budget."

But, he said, "if they're a bottom-line, numbers-oriented executive who thinks they need to save money right now, they'll cut the (security) budgets."

Trlica said the consequences may show instant savings but will turn up in six months to haunt them during inventory. "They simply see (loss prevention) as an expense line and not as a potential profit line in their reports."

St. George Sheriff's Sgt. James Van Fleet saw retail thefts in his area climb 42 percent in 2008. He believes the spike is likely to mount even higher: "We're just in prepare mode right now for what's coming at us in 2009."