217 people arrested, including 47 repeat offenders, in 3-week Vancouver anti-shoplifting blitz

More than 215 people were arrested, with 217 charges forwarded to Crown counsel, as part of a three-week anti-shoplifting blitz in Vancouver this year.

Vancouver police partnered with London Drugs and the Gastown Business Improvement Society to carry out “Project Barcode” between Feb. 15 and March 10. As a result, police said 200 incidents of theft were investigated, contributing to a 19-per-cent reduction in incidents at participating retail outlets during the initiative’s timeframe.

“Retail crime is a growing concern in Vancouver. We continue to see an alarming trend toward repeat offenders and people using violence to commit their crimes,” said Staff Sgt. Mario Mastropieri in a Wednesday news conference.

“We also know that businesses are frustrated by the financial losses and also the dangers employees face on a daily basis just so imply coming into work on a daily basis to earn a living.”

Of the 217 people arrested during Project Barcode, 47 were repeat offenders, said Mastropieri. Just under $80,000 of stolen merchandise was recovered and 24 weapons were seized, 18 of which were knives.

The initiative’s goal was to crackdown particularly on repeat and violent shoplifters, Mastropieri added. One retail outlet was targeted 53 times during the project, he said, with grocery stores, dollar stores, clothing retailers and pharmacies among the hardest hit.

“The unfortunate reality that we need to share with you today is that frontline workers in retail stores are facing alarming levels of abuse and violence,” said Tony Hunt, general manager of loss prevention at London Drugs.

“Physical assaults, threats of violence and the abuse of retail workers has escalated and we need to work together and continue to work together to stop it.”

Hunt called on all levels of government to contribute to cracking down on the problem, in addition to further collaboration with the Vancouver Police Department.

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According to the VPD, Vancouver experienced a 30-per-cent increase in shoplifting incidents in 2022 compared to previous years, with around 20 violent incidents per month.

“There’s also this attitude that folks can just come in and take what they want and feel like there is really no impact to that,” Walley Wargolet, executive director of the Gastown Business Improvement Society.

“There is and there is a huge amount of pressure right now, especially with our small business community around increase in property tax, inflation eating into their bottom lines, there’s an increase in wage cost.”

If businesses are forced to grapple with the costs of shoplifting losses as well, he said he fears many Vancouver businesses will begin to close their doors.

Mastropieri said many incidents of shoplifting go unreported, but he encouraged business owners to report all of them, no matter how small. Data from this project, he explained, was used to target stores that were likely to be hit again in the future.

“If we don’t have the statistics, if we don’t have the reports, we don’t know they’re occurring, basically,” he said.