BEND, OR -- Organized retail theft is a growing problem in Central Oregon. Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels says it happens in every corner of the county and it costs retailers tens of thousands of dollars. "Ten people go into a store, through the front door, they spread out, they each get a cart. They start loading items, merchandise into carts and then they push them out the door," Gunnels told County Commissioners this week, "They get out of the store and then they go to the next store and they do the same thing." He says the transient nature of the crime makes it difficult to catch the thieves, "Going from store to store, stealing literally thousands of dollars at each store. And then, eventually either getting caught or having some parts of the organization getting caught and some fleeing the area to go to other countries or to go to the other side of this country."

Gunnels office is now asking for a state grant to create a 10-month program, This would be a partnership between the DA's office and Bend Police Department, to gain a stronger understanding of the organized retail theft issue here in Deschutes County," says D.A. Management Analyst Kathleen Meehan Coop. She says it would allow for officers, prosecutors and retail employees to participate in training," And hosting a variety of meetings for local retailers, to understand exactly what they are experiencing; with the ultimate goals for us to establish agreements with some of our local retailers, and to develop a long-term plan for addressing the problem."

Gunnels says as long as this extreme form of shoplifting is so successful for the thieves, they will continue, "Stores more and more have a policy of not intervening physically to stop theft and that's part of- I don't want to say it's part of the problem, but it increases the profitability for organized retail theft rings." He told Commissioners, "This kind of crime can be interrupted and if the profitability is taken out of it, it will stop."

Oregon's Criminal Justice Commission is making $5 million available statewide to combat organized retail theft. Deschutes County Commissioners agreed to allow the D.A. to ask for $50,000. 

Photo: Redmond Police identified two men suspected of stealing numerous items from a local shoe store in 2023.