The surveillance video, from earlier this year, is startling: Four masked men march in a line through a Home Depot store in New York -- two of them looking like menacing bodyguards -- while the two others confidently push carts stacked with almost a hundred boxes of high-value items that they take but never pay for.
When the same crew, allegedly doing the same thing, was approached by a security officer at another Home Depot store nearby, one of the men threatened the guard.
"I'll knock you out. This isn't worth dying for," he said, according to prosecutors.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/son-home-depot-worker-fatally-attacked-theft-seeks/story?id=99732402
As Home Depot executives describe it, that New York-area crew is part of a growing threat to Americans across the country: so-called organized retail crime, where groups of criminals steal prized items to sell online or elsewhere.
While this kind of theft has been around for years, retailers say it's reached unprecedented levels, sparking deadly violence at some stores. And federal authorities now warn it's become an "absolute threat" to public safety and public health, declaring that violent gangs, dangerous international crime syndicates, and even groups with suspected ties to terrorism are increasingly dabbling in organized retail crime across the United States.
abcnews.go.com
When the same crew, allegedly doing the same thing, was approached by a security officer at another Home Depot store nearby, one of the men threatened the guard.
"I'll knock you out. This isn't worth dying for," he said, according to prosecutors.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/son-home-depot-worker-fatally-attacked-theft-seeks/story?id=99732402
As Home Depot executives describe it, that New York-area crew is part of a growing threat to Americans across the country: so-called organized retail crime, where groups of criminals steal prized items to sell online or elsewhere.
While this kind of theft has been around for years, retailers say it's reached unprecedented levels, sparking deadly violence at some stores. And federal authorities now warn it's become an "absolute threat" to public safety and public health, declaring that violent gangs, dangerous international crime syndicates, and even groups with suspected ties to terrorism are increasingly dabbling in organized retail crime across the United States.
Top DHS official warns of 'absolute threat' to public safety, economy from organized retail crime
Authorities are ringing alarm bells about the growing threat of organized retail crime, where groups of criminals steal high-value items to sell online or elsewhere.
abcnews.go.com
