6 ms·

The Crime Rings Stealing Everything from Purses to Power Tools

37 points by laurex 3y ago

h2odragon 3y ago
Last December NYT: Is Shoplifting Really Surging? https://archive.ph/lJxHA https://archive.ph/lJxHA > Conservative media has promoted these videos as evidence of disorder in liberal cities and under President Biden. Numerous other media emissions similarly re-assured us that crime is down! There's no organized theft rings! and so on. It's so hard to keep up with History today.
- JohnMakin 3y ago
  Crime can be down and there also can be organized theft rings. Do you see why?
  - readthenotes1 3y ago
    The most obvious reason why is that by crime you mean reported crime, and by reported crime you mean reported crime reported to the FBI. (E.G., https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/08/15/see-if-police-in-your-state-reported-crime-data-to-the-fbi https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/08/15/see-if-police-...)
  - iwanttocomment 3y ago
    There seems to be an essential confusion between police refusing to investigate low-level theft without bodily harm (non-felony shoplifting, snatch-and-run, hit-and-run without injury) and the resulting (and inaccurate) lower crime rates. While not necessarily true of more serious (high-value or violent crimes) it is entirely possible for actual minor crime rates to rise while reported crime rates decrease.
    - JohnMakin 3y ago
      Sure, but the parent I responded to seems to be trying to make an "aha!" here based on the fact that there are in fact crime rings, that crime is not actually down, which is a completely fallacious conclusion.
jfan001 3y ago
I had my bag stolen with clothes + work laptop out of my rental car in San Francisco, from the trunk, while parked in an underground garage with security on patrol. SF has an especially bad problem with shoplifting and robberies, but it's happening in a lot of other places too. A friend who worked in a senior position at a FAANG had his phone stolen while it was unlocked, and within minutes they had disabled Find My. They had full access to his work accounts + private data + identity documents for several hours, so he has to get everything replaced. Crazy that for most folks the most valuable assets isn't the device itself but the information on it, and criminals have started to realize that.
- SkipperCat 3y ago
  I deleted by bank app from my cell phone for this reason alone.
  - wobbly_bush 3y ago
    Don't bank apps require logging even explicitly even if the phone is unlocked?
    - kxrm 3y ago
      Apparently not all cash apps do. My bank apps require some form of login but things like Venmo do not.
    - jfan001 3y ago
      Yeah almost all finance apps do. Used to work at Robinhood and this was actually my feature, otherwise we'd just see ridiculous levels of fraud and have to end up eating the cost of it.
- supriyo-biswas 3y ago
  I’m more concerned about how you’d go about disabling Find My on a locked device that doesn’t have an user replaceable battery either. (I’m not disputing your experience, I just want to know because I can’t find any info on how to disable it on a locked device.)
sabarn01 3y ago
The issue is reporting. Where I live about 4 years ago they stopped prosecuting people who steal less than 500$. My friend who is a cop said they eventually stopped arresting them because its unethical to arrest someone for a crime they won't be prosecuted for. Then stores stopped calling the cops. This resulted in more crime but less reported crime for burglary. The only statics you can really count on is Car thefts and murders. There was a surge in murders in starting in 2020 which has leveled off but it was still high. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/murder-homicide-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/uni... The same is true for car thefts https://www.statista.com/statistics/191216/reported-motor-vehicle-theft-rate-in-the-us-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/191216/reported-motor-ve... I think it reliable to say the US experienced a large surge in crime starting in 2020.
- nativeit 3y ago
  The issue is the economic and societal problems that drive desperation and widening inequality. It is symptomatic of the short-term thinking and opportunistic nature of an economic model that inherently ignores the implications of its incentives and how their impacts will affect all stakeholders other than investors and their share prices. Let’s not pretend that more incarceration and law enforcement encounters will fix anything, they’re much more likely to further exacerbate the root problem.
  - geraldwhen 3y ago
    I’d happily pay more in tax to jail every thief in the country.
    - DinoDad13 3y ago
      How much more would you pay?
    - antisthenes 3y ago
      Be careful that you yourself or some of your relatives don't end up in jail for white collar crime with that approach. You know less about others than you think.
tromp 3y ago
https://archive.is/0VVna https://archive.is/0VVna
geodel 3y ago
So various crime groups are coming together and leveraging the synergies.
- lebean 3y ago
  Lots of synergies indeed. And gig workers!
somethoughts 3y ago
"unload boosted goods at a swap meet, or at a store where illicit items are “washed” by commingling them with legitimate ones. Pilfered commodities often wind up online." I do feel like one way to at least prevent resale would be for Target, et. al to work with the manufacturers to put more prominent markings that are custom to their retail outlet (i.e. stickers which signify Target). That way if I order skincare products or a t-shirt from Amazon and I see that the manufacturer labels have Target on them I can report it to Amazon. I feel like Amazon, eBay, etc. are all key to the increase in the ease of reselling lifted items.
fwungy 3y ago
"We" need to stop thinking about "crime" as something negative. It's a job, just a job. Some poor hungry person has to do a dangerous job so they can feed their family. Simple as. If you are the "victim" of a crime the wise thing to do is not resist, just report the loss to insurance and get compensated, knowing that hungry people have been fed and sheltered for whatever slight inconvenience you have experienced. Perhaps even feel some gratitude that the lucky draw of your birth to privileged people means you don't have the job title of criminal? /s
- sabarn01 3y ago
  My wife's face was smashed in to steal her purse. The people who stole her purse were not hungry. Its not a job and most people who experience crime do not have insurance. Policing and public safety are our most important social service. Crime destroys people lives and safety. People who commit crime especially violent crime should have their lives destroyed.

37 points by laurex 3y ago

Last December NYT: Is Shoplifting Really Surging? https://archive.ph/lJxHA https://archive.ph/lJxHA > Conservative media has promoted these videos as evidence of disorder in liberal cities and under President Biden. Numerous other media emissions similarly re-assured us that crime is down! There's no organized theft rings! and so on. It's so hard to keep up with History today.

JohnMakin 3y ago
Crime can be down and there also can be organized theft rings. Do you see why?
- readthenotes1 3y ago
  The most obvious reason why is that by crime you mean reported crime, and by reported crime you mean reported crime reported to the FBI. (E.G., https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/08/15/see-if-police-in-your-state-reported-crime-data-to-the-fbi https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/08/15/see-if-police-...)
- iwanttocomment 3y ago
  There seems to be an essential confusion between police refusing to investigate low-level theft without bodily harm (non-felony shoplifting, snatch-and-run, hit-and-run without injury) and the resulting (and inaccurate) lower crime rates. While not necessarily true of more serious (high-value or violent crimes) it is entirely possible for actual minor crime rates to rise while reported crime rates decrease.
  - JohnMakin 3y ago
    Sure, but the parent I responded to seems to be trying to make an "aha!" here based on the fact that there are in fact crime rings, that crime is not actually down, which is a completely fallacious conclusion.

jfan001 3y ago

I had my bag stolen with clothes + work laptop out of my rental car in San Francisco, from the trunk, while parked in an underground garage with security on patrol. SF has an especially bad problem with shoplifting and robberies, but it's happening in a lot of other places too. A friend who worked in a senior position at a FAANG had his phone stolen while it was unlocked, and within minutes they had disabled Find My. They had full access to his work accounts + private data + identity documents for several hours, so he has to get everything replaced. Crazy that for most folks the most valuable assets isn't the device itself but the information on it, and criminals have started to realize that.

SkipperCat 3y ago
I deleted by bank app from my cell phone for this reason alone.
- wobbly_bush 3y ago
  Don't bank apps require logging even explicitly even if the phone is unlocked?
  - kxrm 3y ago
    Apparently not all cash apps do. My bank apps require some form of login but things like Venmo do not.
  - jfan001 3y ago
    Yeah almost all finance apps do. Used to work at Robinhood and this was actually my feature, otherwise we'd just see ridiculous levels of fraud and have to end up eating the cost of it.
supriyo-biswas 3y ago
I’m more concerned about how you’d go about disabling Find My on a locked device that doesn’t have an user replaceable battery either. (I’m not disputing your experience, I just want to know because I can’t find any info on how to disable it on a locked device.)

sabarn01 3y ago

The issue is reporting. Where I live about 4 years ago they stopped prosecuting people who steal less than 500$. My friend who is a cop said they eventually stopped arresting them because its unethical to arrest someone for a crime they won't be prosecuted for. Then stores stopped calling the cops. This resulted in more crime but less reported crime for burglary. The only statics you can really count on is Car thefts and murders. There was a surge in murders in starting in 2020 which has leveled off but it was still high. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/murder-homicide-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/uni... The same is true for car thefts https://www.statista.com/statistics/191216/reported-motor-vehicle-theft-rate-in-the-us-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/191216/reported-motor-ve... I think it reliable to say the US experienced a large surge in crime starting in 2020.

nativeit 3y ago
The issue is the economic and societal problems that drive desperation and widening inequality. It is symptomatic of the short-term thinking and opportunistic nature of an economic model that inherently ignores the implications of its incentives and how their impacts will affect all stakeholders other than investors and their share prices. Let’s not pretend that more incarceration and law enforcement encounters will fix anything, they’re much more likely to further exacerbate the root problem.
- geraldwhen 3y ago
  I’d happily pay more in tax to jail every thief in the country.
  - DinoDad13 3y ago
    How much more would you pay?
  - antisthenes 3y ago
    Be careful that you yourself or some of your relatives don't end up in jail for white collar crime with that approach. You know less about others than you think.

tromp 3y ago

https://archive.is/0VVna https://archive.is/0VVna

geodel 3y ago

So various crime groups are coming together and leveraging the synergies.

lebean 3y ago
Lots of synergies indeed. And gig workers!

somethoughts 3y ago

"unload boosted goods at a swap meet, or at a store where illicit items are “washed” by commingling them with legitimate ones. Pilfered commodities often wind up online." I do feel like one way to at least prevent resale would be for Target, et. al to work with the manufacturers to put more prominent markings that are custom to their retail outlet (i.e. stickers which signify Target). That way if I order skincare products or a t-shirt from Amazon and I see that the manufacturer labels have Target on them I can report it to Amazon. I feel like Amazon, eBay, etc. are all key to the increase in the ease of reselling lifted items.

fwungy 3y ago

"We" need to stop thinking about "crime" as something negative. It's a job, just a job. Some poor hungry person has to do a dangerous job so they can feed their family. Simple as. If you are the "victim" of a crime the wise thing to do is not resist, just report the loss to insurance and get compensated, knowing that hungry people have been fed and sheltered for whatever slight inconvenience you have experienced. Perhaps even feel some gratitude that the lucky draw of your birth to privileged people means you don't have the job title of criminal? /s

sabarn01 3y ago
My wife's face was smashed in to steal her purse. The people who stole her purse were not hungry. Its not a job and most people who experience crime do not have insurance. Policing and public safety are our most important social service. Crime destroys people lives and safety. People who commit crime especially violent crime should have their lives destroyed.