Officers recover 15,000 stolen items in Bay Area retail bust
This photo shows some of the stolen items seized by law enforcement.
VALLEJO, Calif. - Law enforcement discovered a vast retail theft operation that led to the arrests of two people and officers recovering more than $200,000 in stolen merchandise.
The California Highway Patrol's Organized Retail Crime Task Force worked in tandem with the San Francisco Police Department to crack the case.
A recent arrest led CHP investigators to obtain and then execute a search warrant at a home in Vallejo on Thursday where they found evidence of a retail theft operation involving merchandise stolen from several stores including, CVS, Victoria’s Secret, Gap, Target, and Nordstrom.
In addition to the residence, a search warrant was served at a storage facility in Vallejo, connected to the same suspect.
At the same time, the San Francisco Police Department's Retail Theft Unit assisted CHP investigators with a search warrant at a second storage facility in the city.
While officers were at the San Francisco storage unit, a man connected to the locker arrived. He was detained and later questioned by investigators who determined he was involved with the organized retail theft.
He was subsequently arrested.
The brazen retail thefts we’ve seen recently are organized by sophisticated criminal enterprises and they demand a no-less sophisticated response from law enforcement agencies working in close coordination," said California Highway Patrol, Golden Gate Division Chief, Chris Costigan.
San Francisco's police chief Bill Scott also weighed in on the bust.
"These kinds of crimes aren’t just hurting large retailers. In our city, they’re hurting workers who are losing their jobs and seeing their hours cut. They’re hurting seniors who depend on neighborhood pharmacies that are being forced to shutter," he said.