ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A local business owner says the ongoing retail crime problem has forced his staff to take matters into their own hands, often chasing thieves down themselves. Now, he’s calling on lawmakers to help crack down, after facing hundreds of thousands in losses.
“What we’ve seen in the last few years is just a huge uptick in crime, all kinds of crime: shoplifters, scammers, burglaries, break-ins. And, it’s gotten to the point now where it’s just almost a daily occurrence,” said Duane Kinsley, owner of Sport Systems in Albuquerque.
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Kinsley said they see people from all walks of life trying to steal from their store. They’ve been in business for forty years, but he says over the last few years the problem has gotten worse. “What we’re finding now is that the criminals don’t care anymore. They don’t care that you saw them, put in the pocket, they know that we know that they’re gonna steal that item, they know that the people that are upfront aren’t going to do anything,” Kinsley said.
However, at Sport Systems, they have a different approach when it comes to dealing with these criminals. “I don’t want any of my employees to engage in any criminal that could be dangerous, but what we do do is we follow them,” Kinsley said, whether on foot or by bike. “Funny story: I had a bike employee, a guy was a stealing a bike went out jumped on the bike started riding down Montgomery. My employee jumped on a bike also, started riding after him at a safe distance behind him, but yelled out and said, ‘hey by the way, I won the last Ironman. Where are we going?’”
“We catch a lot of these people because they can’t really outrun us. It’s kind of funny: they come into a run store and think they’re going to outrun the run store employee or the bike employee,” Kinsley said.
A general manager of the store named Tommy said dealing with shoplifters is something he know will likely happen on a day-to-day basis; he says it takes up a lot of his time. However, how thieves are dealt with is up to them on a case-by-case basis: “There’s a few of us that make the call. If its not threatening, there have been times, we discourage it, we don’t encourage it, but if there’s some times where it’s warranted we will apprehend, detain, there have been a few times where we just get our things back,” Tommy said.
While Kinsley said this has worked for them in getting stuff back, he’s frustrated by the revolving door in the courts. “They arrest them, almost half the time they’ll say, ‘you’re wasting your time. I’m gonna be back out on the street in two hours,’” Kinsley said.
“What’s sad though, is that a lot of these, and also when they get caught, so the police come they arrest the criminal, they always ask me, ‘do you want to prosecute?’ Every single time I say yes. Nothing ever happens,” Kinsley said. “They never call me back, have never gone once to a court hearing, or anything. This has happened 100 times over the last years.”
It’s cost them $100,000 in security measures for the store after people have tried to get in by breaking windows, trying to climb through skylights and air ducts, and even taking doors off hinges. “One of them dremeled the hinges off the door. It was a bike ring out of Mexico. They stole 80,000 dollars worth of bikes and they sold them on eBay down in Mexico,” Kinsley said.
Kinsley said the losses they’ve seen due to theft are now in the six figures. So, they’re looking to the legislature for help. “Last year there was a bill passed that we like, that all of these thefts, shoplifters, the amounts accumulate to build up to a felony,” Kinsley said. However, they want to see more. “The problem hasn’t gone away, it’s gotten worse. So, we’re looking for the legislators. We’re imploring them to please pass all the crime bills that are before you.”
“There needs to be a harsher punishment, there needs to be more police involvement. There needs to be anything and everything that can help put these people away and actually prosecute them,” Tommy said.
“We’re losing our city, and we need to have our legislators, I’m imploring all of your viewers to call your legislator and tell them to pass all the crime bills,” Kinsley said.
He says he plans to speak at the Roundhouse about the problem this session.
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