A recent rash of shoplifters has caused local business owners to take to social media, posting surveillance video screenshots in the hopes of identifying the perpetrators and warning other storekeepers.<\/p>\n
In one suspect\u2019s case, she was quickly identified as having hit two different businesses in one week \u2014 and the same woman has been charged in a shoplifting at downtown store Shoefly a little more than a month ago.<\/p>\n
With the exception of the woman charged in connection with the shoplifting incident at Shoefly, the Empire is not printing the names of the suspects as identified on social media, because they have not been arrested or charged.<\/p>\n
On July 15, a local who has been reportedly mounting something of a one-woman crime spree was caught on camera stealing from Hummingbird Hollow Gifts inside the Juneau International Airport.<\/p>\n
While the store has had \u201cquite a few\u201d shoplifters over the years, sticky-fingered travelers who would then get caught while waiting for their flights, lately it has been more locals, said saleswoman Sarah Novell-Lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is kind of odd,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This particular woman, identified by the Juneau Police Department as a 34-year-old Juneau resident, managed to make off with an estimated $500 in goods. She was caught on camera taking items that included a leather bag and a beaded necklace.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was under my radar that day,\u201d Novell-Lane said with a rueful laugh. \u201cIt was busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point, Novell-Lane registered the woman walking by her with an item in her hand. Then, she said, \u201cI noticed she was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
She reviewed the security footage and caught the theft, but it was too late and the security person couldn\u2019t find the suspect in the airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deduced she was a local,\u201d Novell-Lane said, adding that a JPD officer identified her on the video.<\/p>\n
The suspect \u201cfigured out she got away with it, and we were an easy target,\u201d Novell-Lane said, adding that she came back the very next day with her son in tow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had no customers, she made herself really obvious \u2014 it was a really different dynamic,\u201d she said. \u201cShe was asking the price of the silver we had in a case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novell-Lane speculated that the woman was scoping out the silver as her next target.<\/p>\n
JPD Lt. David Campbell confirmed Thursday that the suspect was identified but that no arrest has been made. He said the case likely would be forwarded to the city attorney for charges.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s questionable whether anything will happen to the suspect, said store owner Kristi Elliott, not to mention getting the items back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make the rounds,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cYou can track that trail through social media. It\u2019s just really frustrating. (Posting information) is the only recourse we have, it feels like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliott said she not only lost goods, she lost time for both herself and her employee as they struggled to document the theft, and is trying to work on a \u201cproactive\u201d approach to combating crime \u2014 to have some preventive measures, possibly involving some sort of networking with other business owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be an outcry, to get something to change,\u201d agreed Novell-Lane. \u201cWe need to ID these people and get no-trespass papers \u2014 that might be the approach we need to take. Hopefully this galvanizes people to fix the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliott said she was stunned to realize, after she posted about her shoplifter on Facebook, that the same woman appeared to be in a surveillance video posted Wednesday by the owners of downtown store Pretty Please.<\/p>\n
That video showed two women working in tandem to steal approximately $250 in items.<\/p>\n
According to co-owner Sara Dodd, the two women spent more than an hour in Pretty Please Tuesday night trying on items. Dodd said she figured out later that the two would bring out hangers that were missing clothing, deliberately causing confusion as to what they still had in the dressing room. The shoplifting was discovered only after they left, she said.<\/p>\n
One of the women put items on hold under her name, while the other asked for a purchase punch card, \u201cwhich made it very easy to make a police report,\u201d Dodd said, laughing.<\/p>\n
Campbell confirmed that JPD had the suspects\u2019 IDs and said that the 34-year-old had been interviewed; the other woman was identified as a 25-year-old Juneau resident.<\/p>\n
Dodd said she wished she had been aware of the earlier post from Hummingbird Hollow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we see pictures from other business owners, we alert our staff immediately to watch out for these people,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we had known she was making her rounds, we could have avoided (the shoplifting), my staff would have recognized her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dodd said she hopes publicizing the shoplifting helps prevent other businesses from being hit by the same people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd also to let them know that we know they shoplifted and maybe they won\u2019t come back,\u201d she added. \u201cThat we\u2019re not an easy target.\u201d<\/p>\n