Ace Hardware in Cathedral City looking to prevent further shoplifting
The ACE Hardware in Cathedral City has been the target of shoplifting since the store was first opened in April and the problems its experiencing are not unique to Coachella Valley or the state of California, according to local law enforcement.”
“We’ve had four attempts, three of them were successful,” said store manager Jeremy Sieben.
Surveillance video of the most recent theft shows a man, now on the run, getting away with an expensive piece of gardening equipment. The store is offering a $500 reward to anyone with information that leads to the arrest of the person in the video.
Since the incident, the ACE store remains “vigilant” according to the manager, with added security, surveillance, and protocol where employees engage with customers throughout their shopping experience.
According to CCPD, the crime is hard for both store owners and law enforcement.
Police Chief Travis Walker says this type of crime is harder to prosecute now that shoplifting and petty theft are considered misdemeanors, not felonies. The change took place when voters passed Prop 47 in 2014, an effort to curb the total inmates behind bars for non-violent or non-sexual crimes.
“People are frustrated with local law enforcement regarding [shoplifting]. It’s not the local law enforcement. This is the hand we’ve been dealt with in trying to deal with criminal activity. They consider shoplifting non-serious, non-violent and non-sexual,” Police Chief Walker said.
“It’s not that we’re not willing to do anything or not doing anything about it, it’s just the frustration I have as a police chief that we’ve run into an area where we don’t have the same tools to deal with crime that we once had,” he said.
Tonight at 5:30 p.m. on CBS Local 2 and 6 p.m. on News Channel 3, Sarah Trott speaks with ACE management about what they are doing to stop shoplifters. We also speak with the Cathedral City Police Department about why it’s become harder to put away shoplifters.
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