The videos are all over social media: a group of shoplifters shove their way into a store, shamelessly grab armloads of clothes, purses, cosmetics — whatever they can sell — and leave before police arrive. Those scenes are part of a national surge in what law enforcement calls “organized retail theft,” and they have played out here in southeast Pennsylvania.
In fact, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said at a press conference on Wednesday, “Organized theft has impacted (the Delaware Valley) more than any other region in the commonwealth.” That’s because of the number of retail establishments in the region, in particular large box stores and high-end retailers. The high volume of customer traffic makes them more likely targets as well.
Sunday held the press event to tout the results of the organized retail crime unit the Attorney General’s Office launched a year ago, with 10 special agents and five prosecutors. The unit has arrested more than 40 people and recovered stolen goods valued at $2 million.
Alex Baloga, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association
Sunday commended the legislature and Sen. David Argall (R-Schuylkill) for Act 42 of 2023, which mandated the task force’s formation and increased the severity of the charges for these crimes. Now, more than $50,000 in goods taken results in a first-degree felony charge.
That gives law enforcement “a large hammer to target these thieves,” Sunday said.
“Pennsylvanians were being put at risk for simply going to their favorite stores to purchase clothing, electronics, and other goods. For years, the perception of retail theft was shoplifting, but it has become much more complex, even dangerous. And they are violent,” he said. They “prefer locations with other shoppers to provide distractions while they commit their crimes.”
Organized retail theft is driven in part by gangs who have existing networks to move illicit products like drugs and counterfeit goods. Stolen products like high-end clothing and accessories can be moved and sold by those same networks, making it a low-cost, low-risk and high-reward activity.
In a February 2025 letter to congressional leaders from the National Association of Attorneys General and signed by Sunday, said, “Across the country, retailers, such as Walgreens, Walmart, and Target, have been forced to close stores due to a combination of sustained financial losses and their employees being physically assaulted by organized retail crime rings. With financial losses totaling over $121 billion and 76 percent of retail asset protection managers reporting their employees have suffered from violence at the hands of organized retail criminals, Americans are paying the price.”
Sunday echoed that message on Wednesday.
“Each and every innocent bystander, employee and shopper could be victims of any violent act,” Sunday said. The thieves do whatever they can to steal as much as they can and get away, he said. They want to sell the items for cash and often send the stolen goods overseas, where they are “significantly” more valuable.
Some thieves exploit store return policies and gift cards, he said. And they’ve also investigated thieves who hijack tractor-trailers and trucks hauling goods.
Earlier this month the task force charged members of the Fifth Street Crew, which committed 49 retail thefts and robberies at multiple retailers including Snipes, Lululemon, Kohls, and Dicks Sporting Goods. The thefts happened in Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Bucks counties and New Jersey from February 2024 to May 2025, he said.
“In at least one incident, members of the Fifth Street Crew viciously assaulted an employee of Snipes in Philadelphia when he attempted to stop the thefts,” said Sunday.
The increased prison sentences are having a deterrent effect, he said. They’re using GPS to track stolen goods and AI translation to stop “foreign actors” from committing these crimes.
In response to a question from DVJournal, Sunday said many of these criminal organizations are “foreign actors.” Some are headed by people in China, Africa, and countries north and south of the U.S. DVJournal asked what items are most likely to be stolen. Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said clothing.
Since the law was changed and the task force was formed, retail thefts have gone down 13 percent, and arrests have gone up 34 percent, said Vanore.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Patrick Shulte, who is in charge of the organized retail crime unit, said they’re “cutting off the supply of stolen goods with the fencing operations that make this crime so profitable.” They collaborate with local law enforcement, the state police, and district attorneys.
“Theft teams have become more sophisticated and losses to stores have become greater,” said State Police Sgt. Logan Brouse. “We all pay the price, from higher-priced goods to lower-paying retail jobs.”
Upper Merion Police Lt. Declan Coyle said his department polices the King of Prussia Mall, the largest mall on the East Coast. They’ve “seen first-hand the negative impact” of the organized retail thieves, he said. The mall is also accessible to various highways, such as the Schuylkill Expressway and the Turnpike, to make it easy to escape, he said.
“This makes it an attractive location for these organized retail theft members,” he said.
“This is really a critical issue to our membership,” said Alex Baloga, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association. “This is paramount to both the safety of customers and the associates and the stores themselves. This is really a crucial initiative that’s been undertaken.”
These organized criminal groups “threaten the livelihoods of small mom-and-pop stores, subject hardworking store staff to violence and abuse, and put families at risk by disrupting the chain-of-custody of products like over-the-counter medicine and health aids,” Baloga said.
Argall was happy with the swift results from the bill he sponsored.
“I’m pleased to see how effectively this unit has pursued and stopped criminal organizations across Pennsylvania. Theft at the scale we see in these cases does not just hurt employers – it results in the loss of jobs and makes our communities less safe,” he said.
