Wegmans Helps Crack Theft Ring

MICHAEL GARRY

BALTIMORE — Police raids of 35 locations in Baltimore County late last month — including pawn shops, residences and warehouses — turned up about $22 million in stolen retail merchandise and resulted in 15 arrests in what may be one of the nation's largest organized retail crime cases.

The goods were stolen from several retail outlets in the Baltimore area, including stores operated by Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans Food Markets, which contributed to the investigation that led to the raids, said Carl Phillips, Wegmans' asset protection regional manager for the Baltimore area. A Wegmans store in Hunt Valley, Md., outside of Baltimore, has been a target of ORC activity, he said.

Recovered merchandise included gift cards, cold medications, pregnancy tests, razor blades, batteries and video games. Police are forecasting the amount of stolen goods could reach up to $50 million, Phillips noted. “This is approaching one of the biggest organized retail theft cases on the East Coast.”

Maureen Grande, Wegmans' asset protection regional manager, Buffalo/Syracuse, said the Baltimore ORC ring is thought to have operated throughout the East Coast. According to WBAL Baltimore, the lead defendant in the case is Jerome Stahl, 40, who was convicted in 2002 of transportation of stolen property and sentenced to two years in prison.

Wegmans, which partnered with Safeway and Target on the investigation, has been “working diligently” over the past few years on gathering intelligence on ORC activity in the Baltimore area, said Phillips. The chain obtained some of its data through interviews with ORC “boosters” who were caught shoplifting merchandise. Last summer, the chain recruited three law enforcement officers in Baltimore County who started an ORC task force. Wegmans also contacted U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement.

Phillips said the raids and arrests represented marked progress in the perception of ORC by law enforcement. “Four years ago, there was no comprehension of organized retail theft,” he said. “It's been a long education process, meeting with local beat cops, their supervisors, district attorneys and state attorneys general.”

“We would like to use this case to catapult [ORC] legislation in New York and federally, as well as legislation in Pennsylvania that's on the brink of being pushed through,” said Grande. “This shows that ORC not only exists, but it exists to this magnitude.”

New legislation would stiffen penalties for ORC and, given its interstate scope, make it a federal crime. In the Baltimore arrests, federal money-laundering statutes may apply, said Phillips.

In New York, district attorneys from three counties — Erie, Monroe and Onondaga — recently met to discuss the ORC issue, said Grande. Wegmans also helped form a New York ORC task force encompassing retailers, district attorneys and law enforcement officers; the group will use a booster questionnaire form similar to what was used in Baltimore to gather intelligence from apprehended boosters. The information will be compiled in a database “so that we can put a case together in New York like we just did [in Baltimore],” she said.