Two East Bay suspects picked the wrong time to try and steal a shopping cart full of merchandise from the Lathrop Target this week – right when a Lathrop Police officer was taking a statement about a separate theft case.

According to Lathrop Police, the incident occurred on Saturday when a traffic officer that was assisting patrol in investigating a theft case at Target was notified about two individuals that had been stocking an unusual number of items in their cart.

When the two suspects – one from Oakland and the other from Lake Balboa – left the store without paying for the items, the officer conducted a traffic stop and took the two individuals into custody without incident.

During a search of the vehicle officers discovered a loaded semiautomatic handgun that had the serial numbers filed off, as well as several hundred dollars in merchandise that had been stolen from the store.

The two individuals were booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on multiple felony charges.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the region have been working hard to try and get a handle on organized retail theft – where groups of individuals load up on merchandise and flee stores without paying for the items.

Manteca, for example, has dedicated a detective and additional resources to protect retailers – sometimes even staging in the parking lot in order to be able to respond faster to incidents when they are called in by loss prevention teams that work closely with law enforcement.

And the crime has been making headlines across California.

Hoping to take advantage of what some perceive as lax criminal justice enforcement in some parts of California, thieves have become brazen in their attempts to steal sometimes tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise from retailers.

That has prompted stores that sell big ticket items like the Apple Store at the Vintage Faire Mall in Modesto to pay for off-duty police protection to protect merchandise, employees, and the customers who shop there.

Just this week in Southern California, a “flash mob” of strong-armed robbers overwhelmed a number of high-end boutique stores to clean out as much merchandise as possible – prompting outrage for the brazen nature of the thefts.

In Stockton, two 7-Eleven employees became national figures after they grabbed a man who had been threatening them and customers and attempting to load a garbage can full of cigarettes and beat him with what appeared to be a mop handle.

The incident prompted a sharp reaction, and the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office issued a statement noting that the two employees were never considered subjects of the investigation, and that any investigation in the incident would be hold the person attempting to rob the store accountable for their actions.  

To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.