‘Tis the season — for a five-finger discount. Retailers are on the lookout for shoplifters as the holiday season gets underway — the first since Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins declared she would decline to prosecute the crime.
“Going into the holiday season, we’re going to need to take a close look at what’s going to happen,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “Just in general, stealing, theft offenses, have historically gone up during the holiday season, and it will be interesting to see if there is a great spike this year versus past years.”
The Suffolk DA’s office said shoplifting was down in the first six months of the year, according to Boston Police Department incident data. Hurst said instances of shoplifting trend upward during the holidays, though, whether it’s people “stealing for themselves or stealing to make a profit, because more people are looking to buy goods, obviously, during the holiday season.” Sometimes criminals are looking to turn a profit by flipping stolen goods online, or using their thievery to… Boston Herald
