As scenes of retail robbery mobs have been recorded throughout the state, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan says that while some regions turn a blind eye to economic crimes, but not in San Diego.
“We want to send a message that San Diego is not a good place to come and do this,“ Stephan said.
Stephan and a band of assistant DAs, whose sole function is to help investigate and prosecute organized retail crime, did a walk-through at an Ulta Beauty store in San Marcos on Monday.
It is one of 21 area Ulta stores, that last year, fell victim to smash-and-grab gangs. In just one month of that year, the thieves stole $127,000 of expensive perfumes from those stores.
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Stephan says the total take was $700,000 before they were caught.
“When people say, ‘Maybe this is about poverty’. No one person needs $127,000 worth of perfume," the District Attorney said.
Stephan says making a case that reaches the level of a felony isn’t easy, since the threshold for felony charges more than doubled, from $400 to $950 dollars in California.
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“For whatever reason, there is a hesitation to prosecute a crime that is economic or appears economic but the thing is, it is not just economic. This is about people’s lives,” Stephan said.
Such was the case at Code One Jewelry in the Plaza Bonita Mall. Two years ago it was hit by smash-and-grab robbers. It’s a theft from which they’ve not yet recovered.
Security video shows the two thieves smashing glass cases with hammers in the middle of the day and the middle of the mall.
“They see how bad it has gotten since they started. It’s just very dangerous,“ Code One spokesperson Catherine Kim said.
Kim’s mother and father have owned and operated that store for eight years. Kim’s mother tried to ward off the thieves with a folding chair.
“She went through emotional distress because it is such a huge loss and it is a mom-and-pop shop. This is their livelihood, “ Kim said.
Kim says they took a quarter million dollars in merchandise but the family’s insurance paid only a fraction of that.
The Ulta Beauty store thefts were successfully prosecuted.
Stephan says the four ring leaders were sentenced to up to four years behind bars.
“It takes an organized teams that know what they are doing, working hand in hand with law enforcement and security at the different businesses,” Stephan said.
The District Attorney seems intensely focused on deterring such crimes in San Diego County.
While the losses are great, the fear it instills in a community may be far worse.
A second smash-and-grab robbery was attempted at Code One Jewelry a year after the first. Thieves left empty-handed this time because the display case are now made from bulletproof glass.
