GILROY
– With the biggest shopping day of the year less than 48 hours
away, Gilroy’s Premium Outlets are solidifying as prime targets for
thieves throughout the Bay Area – attracting veteran shoplifters
from as far as Oakland, according to police.
Thanks to the corporate policies of several of the outlets’ 145
stores to not prosecute people caught shoplifting at their
businesses, Gilroy’s sales-tax gorilla is becoming a helpless sheep
to preying criminals
– wasting valuable police resources in the process, according to
Deputy District Attorney Frank Carrubba.
GILROY – With the biggest shopping day of the year less than 48 hours away, Gilroy’s Premium Outlets are solidifying as prime targets for thieves throughout the Bay Area – attracting veteran shoplifters from as far as Oakland, according to police.
Thanks to the corporate policies of several of the outlets’ 145 stores to not prosecute people caught shoplifting at their businesses, Gilroy’s sales-tax gorilla is becoming a helpless sheep to preying criminals – wasting valuable police resources in the process, according to Deputy District Attorney Frank Carrubba.
“We’ve caught several people shoplifting at the outlets possessing large quantities of stolen goods who are from the Oakland area,” said Lanny Brown, assistant chief with the Gilroy Police Department. “From talking to these people it is apparent that the word has gotten out all over that the outlets are easy pickings because many of the businesses don’t prosecute. Why wouldn’t you go there, too, if you wanted to steal?
“It’s bad enough those types are now coming to town, but without prosecution it also becomes a waste of the public dollar,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate situation for the city and its tax dollars.”
In an effort to eliminate the Premium Outlets’ spreading reputation as an easy target, Carrubba has called a Dec. 4 meeting with Premium Outlet administrators, security heads and managers from every outlet store to discuss the ramifications of non-prosecution policies. At the meeting Carrubba will also inform store managers of the district attorney’s new policy to prosecute shoplifters unconditionally, according to comments he made at meeting with city and police officials Friday.
“When stores don’t prosecute and have police come out just for insurance purposes it burns us all,” Mayor Tom Springer said. “Now the DA is saying you don’t get a choice – I like it. Now the stores got to get their act together.”
It is not known what percentage of the 145 outlet stores practice non-prosecution policies, but Brown said although the majority of stores cooperate with the DA, there are at least a handful of “big-name” stores who have made the GPD’s list for repeatedly letting shoplifters walk.
In 2000, the GPD logged 31 shoplifting attempts at the outlets, compared to 47 at nearby Wal-Mart – which prosecutes shoplifters – and 18 at the Home Depot, which also prosecutes. Although Wal-Mart recorded more incidents of shoplifting, 31 percent of the thefts at the outlet mall were for more than $400. None of the Wal-Mart thefts reached that figure. 2001 numbers were not available.
Gilroy Premium Outlets General Manager Jane Nuñez would not comment, but did say that she will be at the Dec. 4 meeting.
Carrubba could not be reached for comment before deadline, but Brown explained that much of the current problem stems from a lack of communication between outlet store managers and their corporate headquarters.
“I think many of the stores here are tied to national and international policy,” Brown said. “They don’t want their employees to chase thieves into the parking lot or try to stop them – and that’s a good policy. But I think in a lot of situations there is a misinterpretation and the managers take this policy too far by failing to prosecute once (the police) have made contact with the suspect.”
The situation that unfolds in many of the shoplifting cases at the outlets is that a store employee unfamiliar with corporate policy will call the police to report a theft, and police respond and apprehend the suspect. Store managers then take back the stolen property while the suspect is in custody, before citing corporate policy and declining to file charges.
The commercial area of the outlets and surrounding businesses consumes an entire GPD beat with one officer on patrol in the area at all times. Theft calls put the officer and citizens in danger.
And without the possibility of justice through prosecution, the risk is not worth it, said GPD Sgt. Jack Robinson, who regularly deals with the frustrated patrol officers who respond to theft calls at the outlets.
“It’s a waste of time; it hurts morale,” he said.
Robinson’s observations are two reasons Springer said Carrubba’s plan to prosecute all outlet shoplifters regardless of store cooperation is necessary, although he admits it might be difficult.
Due to high turnover at many of the outlet stores, subpoenaing store employees to court as witnesses to shoplifting trials could pose problems, Springer said. But overall, he thinks getting the word out on the street that the outlets won’t lay down to shoplifters will be the stiffest deterrent.
“The bad guys know who doesn’t prosecute,” Springer said. “We don’t want Gilroy to be on that list anymore.”
