Brazen Oregon Lowe's shoplifters push carts laden with $2,000 of copper cable in latest example of 'legalized stealing' in lenient Dem states
Two men brazenly walked out of an Oregon Lowe's store pushing a shopping cart filled with electrical wire before loading it into a waiting getaway car as helpless store workers looked on in the latest incident of 'legalized stealing' in Democratic states.
The pair picked products like spools of wire valued at $2,000 - presumably to strip it for the valuable copper inside - from a Lowe's in Keizer, a suburb of Salem, on August 25.
Keizer Police confirmed that they were investigating the incident, but no arrests have been made and the men have not been publicly identified.
'Once you've stolen from Lowe's once and know they can't stop you, there's no real consequence,' Keizer Police Lieutenant Andrew Copeland told Fox News, noting employees at many chain stores aren't allowed to stop shoplifters.
'Second thing is, these people know they can't go to jail.'
The video is the latest example of shoplifters simply walking out of stores with armfuls of goods, knowing there is little officials can do to prosecute them, after a string of similar incidents in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Two men walked out with thousands of dollars of merchandise from a Lowe's in Keizer, Oregon
The men loaded up a red Subaru on August 25 with spools of wire, which they will likely sell for the valuable copper inside, according to police and the electrician who filmed the video
TikTok user @colmax77 first posted the video to his personal account a week ago
@colmax77 Rispondi a @floridacontractor #ideamericanproductions #fypシ #fyp #perte #neiperte
♬ suono originale - Massimiliano Colella
Theft in Oregon has spiked more than 30 percent higher than the rest of the country, and the rate of crimes in the small city of Keizer is 257 percent higher than the national average.
Jails in Portland, about 43 miles north of Keizer, has reduced the number of new inmates it takes in to prevent overcrowding during the pandemic.
'We have reduced the folks we are taking to jail,' Police Chief Jami Resch told Willamette Week. 'We are taking felonies and mandatory arrests to jail.'
In the video from Oregon, an employee asks the men for a receipt as they walk out of the store. One of the men points to the side in an attempt to distract her and says, 'Right there,' as he walks past her.
The employee then stops a colleague from chasing after them and says, 'Not worth it,' as the men walk past the vestibule and into the store parking lot.
Andrew Sullivan, an electrician who filmed the incident, called it, 'Funny and disturbing at the same time'.
'It was so blatant, that's what riled me up. They were just strolling through the parking lot, just riding the carts,' he said in an interview with the Keizer Times.
'I think these guys have done it before because they seemed to have a good system. One guy with the car and two guys with the carts. They knew no one was going to touch them,' he added.
Larceny, which includes various forms of theft, is considerably high in Oregon compared to the national average, according to the the latest data available from the FBI
Crime per sq mi in the small city of Keizer is 257 percent higher than the national average
Theft of more than $1,000 is a Class C Felony in Oregon punishable by up to five years in prison, according to Oregon's statute.
'Organized retail theft,' in which two or more people take over $5,000 worth of products from a store in a 90-day period, is a Class B Felony punishable by up to 10 years.
A recent study by safehome.org found that Oregon is the eighth worst in the nation for property crime, which includes burglary, vehicle theft and arson, according to KATU.
Over the summer, several videos went viral showing shoplifters brazenly walking out of stores with their arms loaded with merchandise.
In San Francisco, a 'prolific' shoplifter was filmed brazenly heaping armfuls of Walgreens products into a trash bag, and then riding his bike through the store with the stolen goods while the security guard and bystanders looked on
In a Twitter video posted by ABC7 Reporter Lyanne Melendez, a man is seen nonchalantly shoplifting from a Walgreens in San Francisco as a bystander and security guard watch
In San Francisco, a 'prolific' shoplifter was filmed heaping armfuls of Walgreens products into a trash bag, and then riding his bike through the store with the stolen goods while the security guard and bystanders looked on.
The broad daylight theft happened at a Walgreens on 300 Gough Street, in the Hayes Valley area. The suspect, Jean Lugo-Romero, 40, was arrested on June 19 and remains in jail.
He had previously robbed the same store on May 29, 30, 31 and June 1, but Walgreens declined to prosecute, District Attorney Chesa Boudin said as he appeared to defend the shoplifter.
'When I watch that video, I think about five questions that people are not asking that I think they should,' Boudin told The New Yorker.
'Is he drug addicted, mentally ill, desperate? Is he part of a major retail fencing operation?
'What's driving this behavior and is it in any way representative, because it was presented as something symptomatic?'
A video posted to Instagram earlier this week captures the moment at least 10 people stole loads of designer bags from Neiman Marcus in San Francisco and fled undeterred
A month later, at least 10 people were filmed taking armfuls of designer goods from a Neiman Marcus in San Francisco and fleeing without anyone trying to stop them.
One person watching in a video of the incident says, 'They can't do anything,' perhaps referring to security at Neiman Marcus.
The city's surge in such incidents arose almost immediately after the passage of Proposition 47, a ballot referendum known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act that downgraded the theft of property less than $950 in value from a felony charge to a misdemeanor.
Viral video shows two men strolling out of a TJ Maxx in the Granada Hills section of the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles in July
In July, a video showed two men carrying armfuls of jeans, jackets and other apparel as they casually saunter out of a TJ Maxx in the Granada Hills section of the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles.
'They didn't even run out, they walked out,' Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Jerretta Sandoz told CBS Los Angeles.
'And so, that's sending a message that...the criminals, are winning.'
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