organized retail crime

The National Anti-Organized Retail Crime Association was created in 2011 to assist loss prevention professionals and law enforcement officials by bringing the private sector and public sector together against the growing tide of organized retail crime.

We at NAORCA are dedicated and passionate about this topic. ORC has been linked to terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and the funding of other criminal gang activity in the United States and around the world. Everyday another international retail theft ring is uncovered.

Retail is global and so is organized retail crime. This is truly a global epidemic.

Our industry must continue to work together and build partnerships throughout the world. We can do this through education, training and awareness. Being on the front line in this fight I have seen all types of ORC, such as credit card fraud, check fraud, refund fraud, organized shoplifting, fake and altered receipts and price tags, E-fencing, burglary, robbery, smash-and-grab and counterfeit money and merchandise.

Retailers must continue to work together and share information about these criminal groups. As our industry continues to evolve, along with new technologies, we must try to be one step ahead of the criminal activity before it hits the bottom line.

Let’s stop being victims of this crime and stand up, work together, share information and make an impact.

Top executives must look at this as an industry problem and work with other retailers by sharing information and let go of the mindset that sending these criminals to another retail chain will solve the problem. Talk to the people who are out there in the field investigating these crimes, and look at the complexities and sophistication that these criminals have undertaken to commit these crimes.

Retailers can be proactive by establishing ORC units dedicated to this fight. They must continue to fund training and education in credit card, check, refund and gift-card fraud. They also must fund training in counterfeiting and e-crimes. 

Retailers could also provide funding to local, state and federal agencies that are on the front line in tackling these crimes. Funding could help with equipment, and help these agencies off set payroll dollars needed to investigate and prosecute these crimes.

NAORCA is dedicated to ORC education, training, and awareness not only to loss prevention and law enforcement but to many other industry sectors these types of crimes impact.

Christopher McGourty has more than 20 years of experience in loss prevention, including working for Filene’s Basement, TJX and Lowe’s Home Improvement and is a founder/board member of the National Anti-ORC Association Inc., www.naorca.org.

Two sisters and their husbands in North Carolina have been sentenced to federal prison for their parts in an organized retail crime ring.

Kimberley Bridges Morris, 37, and Darlene Bridges Schoener, 39, will each serve more than a year in federal prison. Their spouses, Michael Morris, 40, and William Schoener, 33, will serve seven years. Additional penalties also were specified.

The four participated in a theft ring with the women’s mother, Bonnie Knight Bridges, and Darryl Keith Brock, according to a report in the Gaston, N.C., Gazette.

The two sisters and their husbands pleaded guilty in July 2011 to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and tax evasion. They dealt in stolen over-the-counter medications and health and beauty products from 2006 to March 2011, serving as first-level fences who purchased stolen products, then sold them to second-tier fences at prices far below the retail and wholesale prices, the news report said.

The six members of the organized retail crime ring sold and distributed more than $16 million in stolen over-the-counter products.

Bridges, 63, and Brock, 45, were both sentenced in October for conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and already are serving nearly six years in prison and one-and-a-half years, respectively. Bridges has been ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution; Brock, more than $1.2 million.

The International Business Times has picked up the story of Tony Sheppard nabbing a notorious booster while in New Orleans at the NRF's LP show, which I reported in my blog on June 25.

Sheppard declined to comment on the story for IBT, but he did speak with Security Director News.

Very cool that the story got some international coverage. But it would have been cooler if it linked to my blog. (It did link to the NRF's blog, though, so at least IBT did offer credit.)

Tony Sheppard may have thought he was off the clock and just killing time before the National Retail Federation kicked off its Loss Prevention Conference & Expo in New Orleans on Tuesday evening. But he quickly discovered otherwise.

Sheppard, who is nationwide manager of ORC investigations for CVS/pharmacy, happened to be in Harrah's Casino on Monday, the day before the conference was set to begin.

At around 5:30 p.m., he rounded a corner in the casino and came face to face with someone he recognized—a professional shoplifter he had helped put away several years ago during an ORC investigation in Kentucky.

Sheppard happened to know this notorious booster was now out of jail and he was almost certain it was the same man he had just passed in the casino. To confirm, he called Ben Dugan, an ORC investigator for Walgreen's, and asked if he could send a photo of the booster and to see if there were any outstanding warrants for his arrest. Sure enough, photos confirmed it was his guy. Dugan was also able to confirm there was an outstanding warrant in Florida for this booster's arrest and, through the casino's security department, that he was booked at the casino hotel through Friday.

With this information in hand, Sheppard contacted the Louisiana State Police, which has an office in the casino. The state police agreed to apprehend the man. They went to his room, but he wasn't there. After some searching, law enforcement officers discovered the booster who shoplifted his way across the south at the craps table, where he was arrested.

And that's how Tony Sheppard, with help from his counterpart at Walgreen's and the Louisiana State Police, solved a crime in his spare time while in New Orleans for a conference.