Journalist catches shoplifters mid-segment whereas reporting on most-robbed Walgreens within the US

Probably the most-robbed Walgreens within the nation noticed its newest thefts captured on digital camera — in the midst of a journalist’s televised report on the rampant crime on the San Francisco retailer.

CNN Senior Nationwide Correspondent Kyung Lah was on the retailer on Monday night time to report on the shop’s newest anti-theft tactic — chaining the doors to its freezers shut — when she noticed a shoplifter strolling out with merchandise in his palms.

“Did that man pay? Did that man pay?” Lah asks a cashier behind the counter.

The worker merely solutions, “He didn’t pay.”

Lah mentioned she witnessed two different robberies in half-hour whereas conducting her story, noting that of the almost 9,000 Walgreens within the US, the one in San Francisco’s Richmond neighborhood was the one with the “highest theft price.”

Within the story, Lah mentioned that the shop sees greater than a dozen thefts a day, and it had just lately seen thieves cleansing out its frozen items part.

It obtained to the purpose the place “employees grew so pissed off they resorted to the chains,” Lah mentioned, referencing the most recent anti-theft system.

The reporter, nonetheless, famous that the workers have been instructed to place the chains away “due to the damaging messaging.”

Native resident Richie Greenberg, who toured the shop with Lah, mentioned he had by no means seen something like what he witnessed on the Walgreens, saying the state of affairs is emblematic of the disaster going through town.

“This was weird, one thing I’d by no means seen earlier than,” Greenberg mentioned. “That is simply extra icing on the cake. Telling us that rampant crime has turn out to be an everyday a part of life.”

The Nationwide Retail Federation’s 2022 retail safety survey ranked the San Francisco Bay Space because the second hardest hit metropolitan space by theft within the earlier two years.

Walgreens has notably shut down 5 shops within the space resulting from theft because the retail crime epidemic started.

Together with the Walgreens within the Richmond neighborhood, a Goal within the downtown space sees greater than 10 thefts a day, leaving the shop little selection however to lock up most of its merchandise.

Different chains resembling Complete Meals, Nordstrom, CVS and Amazon have either left downtown San Francisco altogether or introduced their intention to take action.