WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—The Safeway grocery store at 600 S. Broadway is locking up the Tide laundry detergent to protect it from shoplifters.
Lieutenant Holley Connors of the Walnut Creek police department told The Epoch Times, “Last week, another officer arrested someone for stealing detergent and they admitted that they sell it at the flea market on the weekends.”
According to several police reports about Tide being shoplifted, people steal it to sell second hand at flea markets and street markets or will trade the items as currency or for items such as drugs. It is also big in organized retail crime because it’s not a traceable item.
A Safeway employee who does not want to be identified because he does not want to lose his job told The Epoch Times that they started locking it up 2–3 months ago during a remodel.
“One of the biggest problems we’ve had is people coming in with shopping carts and filling them up overflowing with Tide and running out the door,” the employee said.
He added that people are especially taking the Tide pods because they are more expensive. This happened maybe three or four times per month within the last 6 months and has gotten worse at this store. The store has put restraining orders on some of the shoplifters.
He also mentioned that the employees are not allowed to say or do anything to stop these shoplifters or they will lose their jobs.
“My coworker who intervened lost his job but did save the products for the store, about $300 worth of laundry detergent,” he said.
He said that his coworker intervened because he was fed up with this happening and decided to chase after the shoplifters and push over the cart to prevent them from stealing. Since it was corporate policy not to intervene, he still lost his job even though he saved the detergent from being stolen.
He said that if things don’t get better, he thinks more things will get locked up. He said the Tide gets locked up at this Safeway due to the amount of theft that happens there.
A locked cabinet full of Tide laundry detergent in the Safeway store in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Aug. 8, 2023. Helen Billings/The Epoch Times
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, this store has encountered more theft, and “that was the beginning of the end,” he said.
Diana Martinez, a regular shopper from Concord, told The Epoch Times: “I usually have to go somewhere else to buy my detergent because I can’t stand up long enough for them to unlock it. I wait and wait and sometimes they don’t even show up.”
Lieutenant Connors said she has caught people stealing these detergents before and it’s common to talk to an officer who’s dealt with a shoplifting involving detergent as well.
“I honestly think this is just kind of the next thing,” she said. “And it seems like when everyone finally starts locking things up, then it might be something else that’s not locked up.”
She added that shoplifting has always been happening in the background, but she started to notice a trend 10–12 years ago. She said they started with alcohol, then Crest White Strips, then razor blades, then baby formula, and now it’s laundry detergent.
Manny Ozonsi, a security guard for this Safeway, told The Epoch Times that some of the shoplifters take the detergent to San Francisco to sell it to the Hondos (drug dealers of Honduran descent). They buy it to trade with the cartels for more drugs to sell or sell it on the black market.
Ozonsi said that the Hondos usually work at Mission and 24th or in the Tenderloin.
According to RealClearInvestigations.com, there is a bigger problem going on in the Tenderloin, as that place is where two organized crime networks meet. One is centered on drugs and the other on theft. The website reported how the Sinaloa cartel is at the top and supplies the Hondos.
Manny Ozonsi in front of the Antioch BART Station in Antioch, Calif., on Aug. 23, 2023 Courtesy of Manny Ozonsi
Ozonsi said he has seen the Hondos in the Tenderloin asking people how much they will sell the detergent for. He said that whoever goes to steal the detergent will usually go to Target, Walmart, or Safeway stores that do not lock up the detergent or have cameras monitoring it.
He said that the shoplifters must know someone who has eyes in the store so they know what time to come and steal the items. He’s been approached before to be a “lookout” who can inform the shoplifters about when it’s a good time to steal the detergent, but he declined, he said.
He added that these shoplifters have been male or female, some are homeless, and most are teenagers. He said shoplifting happens the most in the mornings and afternoons, and these kids are coming from San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento.
“What do you really gain out of doing this? Nothing,” he said. “Where are their parents at?”
As a security guard, Ozonsi is only allowed to observe and report these shoplifters.
Ozonsi works for Triton Global Services, the security company that services the Walnut Creek Safeway store.
The company confirmed to The Epoch Times that when the security guard sees a crime in progress, such as stealing, the policy is to have the guard “observe and report.” By law, they cannot put their hands on anyone, block their path, or touch the items stolen. They are supposed to call the police first and then their security company.
This is typical of most security companies.
The Epoch Times reached out to Safeway for comment multiple times but did not hear back by press time.
