Amid heightened crime rates across the country, shoplifting has become an increasingly popular form of illicit activity. In major cities, there have been organized shoplifting rings terrorizing retail stores and their customers in the face of lax laws regarding these types of crimes.
In New York, the problem has become particularly egregious, and has resulted in a thriving black market on which criminals sell the merchandise they pilfered from major and smaller retailers. Indeed, the Empire State’s shoplifting market has cost retailers billions of dollars each year as this brand of property crime continues.
A shoplifting epidemic costing retailers in New York state $4.4 billion a year is creating a shadow resale economy that ranges from eBay to bodegas, The Post has learned.
Shoplifting in New York City alone rose 64% from June 2019 to June 2023, according to the Council on…
