Shoplifting surge hurts us all

It’s difficult to swallow the notion that stealing from Toys R Us was done in the spirit of Christmas.

The five women and one man who were caught on security cameras on Dec. 1, calmly walking out of Windward Mall with large boxes of toys they didn’t pay for, can’t make the argument that being unemployed drove them to steal for the sake of their children’s holiday happiness. That excuse won’t fly under any circumstances, even if they just took only a few toys.

In any case, they didn’t. On the video, they appeared to be taking as much as they could carry. Some 24 toys, worth more than $300, were turned in to police, said attorney Myles Breiner; police, though, say that’s less than half of some $1,500 in goods taken.

At least four suspects have turned themselves in — but it’s questionable if that was prompted by true remorse or the "gotcha" surveillance.

And in developments emerging yesterday, police say at least five of that group are now suspects in the theft of two flat-screen TVs from the Kunia Walmart on Nov. 30.

The alleged theft at Toys R Us and the accompanying video got national attention, perhaps because it’s a brazen example of a larger trend — a rise in shoplifting nationwide during tough economic times.

An estimated $1.8 billion in merchandise was shoplifted from U.S. retailers in the four weeks leading up to Christmas this year, according to a retailer survey called The Global Retail Theft Barometer. That’s a jump of about 6 percent, from $1.7 billion in the same period last year.

And those figures don’t include thefts by employees, organized retail crime or vendor fraud. With those included, retailers expect to lose $5 billion nationwide this year.

Likewise, in 2010, there were 1.06 million shoplifting offenses nationwide known to law enforcement, according to the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation; in 2006, there were 875,191.

In Hawaii, the numbers are equally troubling. There were 6,151 incidents of shoplifting in 2009, the latest numbers online from the state Attorney General’s annual crime report. The number jumped from 5,190 in the previous year, and was the largest year-to-year increase since at least 1999.

The alleged shoplifters at Windward Mall fit the pattern of most of those who steal from stores, as sketched by the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention — non-professionals who steal, not out of greed or financial desperation, but as a response to social and personal pressures in life.

The commercial demands of Christmas certainly can put pressure. Witness the grotesque spectacle of Black Friday shoppers getting shot, with pepper spray and real bullets, over such ephemera as video games.

Retailers have had to combat shoplifting with increasingly elaborate safeguards, from cameras mounted everywhere to security sensor tags on merchandise and security gates at the doors. These measures are paid for by local customers, who already pay a high price for living here and don’t need the extra burden imposed by thieves.

The burden is not just monetary; the guilty and innocent alike now live, work and play under a cloud of suspicion, our public movements tracked and recorded. It’s not quite Orwell’s "1984," but it’s a far cry from more innocent times.

Unfortunately, tighter security hasn’t kept the problem from getting worse. Neither have criminal penalties, which are not unduly lenient — the Toys R Us suspects can face up to five years in prison.

The best solutions remain the old-fashioned ones: A rededication to the values of honesty and integrity, and a repudiation of selfishness and greed. Adults, especially parents, can set a good example by practicing those values for their children to emulate. We can also give generously to programs that lend a helping hand to those truly in need — programs like Toys for Tots, which offer an obvious alternative to stealing Dora the Explorer games.

Above all, we can be grateful for those who accept such help: It takes courage and commitment to live honestly in poverty, especially when society seems to value material prosperity above all. Such dignity and self-respect contribute as much to the well-being of our community as a donation.