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A security guard and a tv reporter were being recording him, but the thief was undeterred, raiding a Walgreens store in San Francisco on a bicycle, a garbage bag in hand stuffed with stolen items.
Millions viewed a video clip of the brazen shoplifting in June, which critics explained illustrated the epidemic of shop thefts that had bedeviled shops throughout the city. It was at least the fifth time that the male, who was later arrested on a raft of theft and theft charges, had qualified that specific Walgreens retail store, on Gough Avenue in the Hayes Valley community, the authorities stated.
Now, four months later on, Walgreens claims it will near that shop and 4 others in San Francisco following month, citing what it described as a continuing trouble of “organized” shoplifting in the town.
“Organized retail crime continues to be a obstacle experiencing vendors across San Francisco,” Phil Caruso, a spokesman for Walgreens, claimed in an e-mail on Wednesday. “Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to enhance in the earlier few months to five instances our chain ordinary.”
Walgreens reported its San Francisco suppliers experienced been focused by expert thieves who resell the goods they steal, predominantly by on line marketplaces. The San Francisco Chronicle has described that law enforcement officials have attributed a great deal of the city’s retail crime to organized theft rings.
In addition to the shop at 300 Gough Road, the Walgreens areas that are closing are at 2550 Ocean Avenue 4645 Mission Road 745 Clement Road and 3400 Cesar Chavez Road, the business stated.
Walgreens associates formerly stated at a board of supervisors hearing in May well that it had shut 17 outlets, largely for the reason that thefts experienced made doing company at those destinations untenable.
Ahsha Safaí, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors, reported on Twitter on Tuesday that the closure of the Walgreens keep at 4645 Mission Road would go away a great void.
“I am fully devastated by this information — this Walgreens is much less than a mile from 7 universities and has been a staple for seniors, families and youngsters for many years,” Mr. Safaí mentioned. The city, he additional, “needs to act with a sense of urgency to lessen and discourage the range of incidents of business retail theft.”
Walgreens explained it experienced improved its “investments in safety measures” at its San Francisco shops “to 46 occasions our chain regular in an effort to offer a risk-free surroundings.”
The business of Mayor London Breed of San Francisco did not right away answer to a request for comment on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco district legal professional, claimed in an e mail on Wednesday that, in addition to prosecuting shoplifting situations, the office had been doing work with the California Freeway Patrol and ALTO, an organization that functions to tackle retail theft.
“Our office environment can take retail theft very very seriously and we have taken various ways in the last calendar year to better stop and prosecute these crimes,” the spokeswoman, Sara Yousuf, claimed. “Last year, our Retail Theft Taskforce worked with legislation enforcement companions in an operation that led to the recovery of more than $8 million in stolen items.”
Ms. Yousuf said that the city was producing development in addressing such thefts.
“While larceny premiums in San Francisco are reduced than they were being in 2019, District Attorney Boudin is committed to operating each day to make San Francisco even safer,” she said.
A spokesman for the San Francisco Law enforcement Department referred inquiries on the make a difference to Walgreens.
The closures, which are scheduled for November, will convey the range of Walgreens retailers that have been shuttered in San Francisco in new many years to 22, according to the firm. Walgreens has far more than 50 retailers in the town, The Chronicle documented.
Walgreens disclosed in an August 2019 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would be closing 200 locations in the United States as element of a cost-personal savings initiative.
Employees at the five San Francisco shops that are closing up coming thirty day period will continue to get the job done at other Walgreens places, and buyers will have their prescriptions transferred to nearby outlets, the corporation explained.
On June 19, the San Francisco Law enforcement Department mentioned that it had arrested the person in the shoplifting video that was recorded at the Walgreens area on Gough Road. Investigators claimed that they related the male, Jean Lugo-Romero, 40, to a string of thefts from merchants in the Northern and Mission districts.
Mr. Lugo-Romero faces robbery and theft charges in connection with 5 separate occasions in which he specific the Walgreens shop on Gough Street, which includes on 4 consecutive days in late Might and early June, the authorities mentioned.
It was not straight away crystal clear irrespective of whether Mr. Lugo-Romero experienced a lawyer. The San Francisco Public Defender’s office environment in San Francisco did not right away respond to a ask for for remark on Wednesday.