Numerous ‘smash and grab’ retail theft incidents that we all have heard and read about can be traced to an organized crime group the CHP refers to as, the “California Girls.” The ring leader is not a member of BLM or Antifa like RW media and their viewers would like us to believe. She’s a suburban woman named Michelle Mack who police describe the organized retail crime leader as a “queenpin” who built an empire outside of San Diego. Inside her mansion, police found a small fortune in cosmetics that had been stolen from Ulta and Sephora stores across the country. The goods were sold on Amazon, at flea markets, and other online ‘stores’ at a fraction of their typical retail price.
- As companies continue to call retail crime an industrywide dilemma, CNBC has spent about eight months investigating organized retail crime rings, getting a rare glimpse into the complex layers of the organizations.
- In some cases, CNBC witnessed low-level shoplifting incidents involving people who appeared to be homeless, and in other cases saw takedowns of alleged organized theft groups that police said were reselling stolen merchandise at flea markets.
- One group, in operation for more than a decade, made millions reselling stolen cosmetics on Amazon, police said.
Arrest at Bay Area store leads to 8 truckloads of stolen goods, police say
An arrest of an individual suspected of shoplifting at the Old Navy in Alameda’s South Shore Center on Feb. 9 pointed police to a bounty of merchandise stolen from stores across the San Francisco Bay Area, officials said.
At a home in Oakland, an investigation team led by the Alameda Police Department recovered eight truckloads of items stolen from Kohl’s, LensCrafters, Ross, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Carter’s, Walmart, Safeway and Nordstrom, Police Chief Nishant Joshi told SFGATE. The total value of the merchandise was estimated to be $75,000, according to a March 5 news release issued by the department. The police also found $10,000 in cash, the statement said.
“It was a significant amount of merchandise that was recovered,” Joshi said over the phone. “The way the merchandise was being stored and categorized was similar to a store. They could be selling it from right there or through online platforms.”
