A thief was caught on video filling a trash bag with items from a San Francisco Walgreens store Monday while a security guard stood in the aisle and recorded the crime.
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @LyanneMelendez
The crook ended up easily bicycling past the guard — who attempted to snag the bag to no avail — and exiting the store in broad daylight.
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @LyanneMelendezImage source: Twitter video screenshot via @LyanneMelendez
Check it out the video:
What are the details?
Lyanne Melendez, a KGO-TV reporter, was shopping in the store on her day off — and she's the one who recorded the above cellphone clip.
"That's when he sort of ran into me with his bicycle," Melendez told her station in the aftermath. KGO said she was not injured.
"It's hard for me as a journalist to say 'I won't be involved, I can't get involved,' I have to be sort of neutral, but this is also my city," Melendez added to her station. "I live in this city, and I see this constantly. Not only Walgreens, but cars, and my garage ... has been broken into twice."
The brazenness of such crimes is common these days, KGO said, and they're driving retailers out of the city. Indeed, the station said that while three people recorded video of the theft, it didn't deter the crook — who cruised down the aisle past the guard and got away with his entire haul on a Lyft bike.
TheBlaze reported about a similar theft at a San Francisco Walgreens last year involving a couple filling up backpacks with store items as an employee helplessly watched.
Melendez told KGO that she's witnessed three out-in-the-open shoplifting sprees at different Walgreens in San Francisco: "At what point do we say, 'Enough is enough, we want our city back'?"
Stores closing
The station said stores are closing in the wake of such thefts, which drive down profit.
Image source: KGO-TV video screenshot
"Seventeen Walgreens over the last five years, almost every Gap retail outlet is gone, CVS is under assault," San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai told KGO.
Image source: KGO-TV video screenshot
The station said Safai held a hearing last month on organized retail theft, and he said District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the police department need a much more coordinated response.
"It might even involve a more aggressive effort when it comes to surveillance cameras, because you see the same individual hitting multiple locations, then you can begin to have deeper conversation about bringing multiple charges, or aggregate charges against that individual and really start to break this up," he told KGO.
Safai added to the station that he's seen some success at a Walgreens in his district that uses uniformed off-duty police officers to guard it. He added to KGO that Boudin and the SFPD have until mid-July to respond to his letter of inquiry on organized retail theft.
Anything else?
And if you're hoping Boudin will respond positively to Safai's letter, you might want to place your hope elsewhere. The far-left DA came into office in 2019 with a promise not to prosecute things like prostitution and public urination. In fact, just two days into his term, Boudin fired seven tough-on-crime prosecutors in order to get his progressive agenda off the ground.
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