With The Economy Down, Shoplifting Is Up

ATLANTA, GA -- Shoplifting is up. But so are the stakes.

"You can steal a couple of pairs of jeans and you may have stolen $40 worth of merchandise -- but that was years ago. If you steal two pairs of jeans now, the dollar amount puts it above a misdemeanor and you can be charged with a felony for shoplifting," said Atlanta Police Sgt. Archie Ezell. "If they committed shoplifting as a felony we are going to prosecute them for a felony and that could mean jail."

But an increase in shoplifting, reported up more than 12 percent last year in Atlanta, is expensive to control. With a continuing down economy and unemployment at record highs, it's costing store owners a great deal of money to protect themselves against shoplifting.

For Kay Stanford, co-owner of Atlanta's Midtown Eyecare, security protection is now an essential part of her doing business.

"We have security tags on each frame and we have 17 cameras throughout the store. We have someone watching the monitors. It's gotten to that point where you have to have someone doing that at all times," Stanford said. "It's very frustrating and its time consuming and these tags are not inexpensive. We like to have the frames out on display so you can come in and try them on. But the other side of that is not having them behind a secure locked glass, which a number of optical places do."

For the Atlanta Police, a priority now is working closely with retailers to curb the shoplifting trends.

The Atlanta Police joins forces each year with the Fulton County District Attorney to host a series of seminars for small business owners to outline precautions for stores and merchandise to curb shoplifting and burglaries.