Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Area legislator cosponsors organized retail crime bill

A number of Clovis and Portales businesspeople don’t believe the area has the organized shoplifting problem Albuquerque and Santa Fe have.

“It’s not really on my radar,” Karl Terry, Executive Director of the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce said.

“But I’ve heard this organized shoplifting is getting to be bigger business than the illegal drug trade,” Terry said. “It’s alarming.”

District 64 Representative Andrea Reeb is a cosponsor of the Organized Retail Crime Bill (House Bill 55). She joins Representatives Bill Rehm, Joshua Hernandez, Randall Pettigrew, and Stefani Lord in the cosponsorship.

The bill is currently in the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee.

Although Reeb is a co-sponsor, she says the bill addresses organized, systematic sweeps of shoplifting that seem to be strategically planned.

Reeb said this is not “smash and grab,” but rather quiet, well-organized group theft that affects urban areas like Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Reeb said she is cosponsoring it as a law enforcement measure that helps urban areas.

The bill describes “organized retail crime” as consisting of retail theft “committed as part of a concerted effort with one or more coconspirators or a coordinated plan” to deprive a retailer or retailers of merchandise over the course of a year.

It would include taking, concealing, label-switching, or changing containers for merchandise with intent to steal it or change the price paid for it.

House Bill 55 creates “organized retail crime” as an offense at misdemeanor and felony levels, depending on how much is taken.

Up to $500 is a misdemeanor, $500 to $2,500 is a 4th degree felony,

$2,500 to $20,000 is a third-degree felony and over $20,000 is a second-degree felony.

 
 
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