Managers of stores located in the West Campus area said they have experienced an unusual period of criminal activity in the past months, as thieves have plagued a section of Commonwealth Avenue near the Student Village, the College of Fine Arts and the College of General Studies, heisting everything from ski jackets to golf clubs, cosmetics to DVD players.
Several serious altercations have transpired in the area during past months, including an attempted robbery of a Starbucks late last year and an armed robbery at the 900 Commonwealth Avenue CVS on Jan. 17, a manager at the CVS said. No immediate harm to students resulting from theft has been reported, and many students continue to work and shop in the affected stores.
Despite the apparent blitz of crime on campus, the high incidence of theft is nothing out of the ordinary, according to BUPD Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire.
‘In the five years I have been here, larceny has been our biggest criminal problem,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘It is our number one reported crime.’
St. Hilaire said area thieves are skillful.
‘The thieves we have around here are aggressive and assertive,’ St. Hilaire said.
A CVS manager said the issue has become a major annoyance.
‘It’s really sad. I can walk down the aisles and just find open stuff,’ a CVS manager said. ‘It’s getting to a point where we can’t keep up with them [the thieves].’
According to a CVS employee, in one incident, a man stripped an entire front store display clean of disposable cameras and, concealing them in a garbage bag, calmly walked out the door. Two managers conversing outside the store stopped the thief as he and his bulging plastic bag waddled past them.
In January, a man stuffed his pockets with batteries, exited initially on foot and ultimately hailed a cab to escape police.
Last week, MBTA and BUPD apprehended a pair of female shoplifting suspects as they bolted from the CVS at 900 Commonwealth Ave. The police were investigating the stabbing of a 33-year-old South Boston man during a fight on the ‘T’.
From aspirin to nail clippers to eyeliner, shoplifters have hit the CVS at 900 Commonwealth Ave. on a daily basis and the losses have added up, the manager said. A plastic crate overflowing with a weeks’ worth of ripped parcels of stolen goods hides in the convenience store’s back room. Managers estimate the value of its missing contents as close to $1,000.
Last year’s annual inventory for the CVS at 900 Commonwealth Ave. reported close to $200,000 in stolen merchandise, a higher loss than any store in the district.
‘All these costs get passed down to the consumer at the end,’ a CVS manager said.
Several doors down at Tweeter, Etc., the story is similar. Larceny has become a weekly, if not daily occurrence.
Audio-visual consultant Mike Regan has had several confrontations with would-be thieves.
‘Sometimes they try and intimidate you,’ he said. ‘One time this little punk mouthed ‘eff-you’ to me and blew me a kiss.’
‘They’ve definitely been getting ballsier,’ said assistant manager James Garelli. ‘They don’t even care if you see them.’
Garelli recalled an incident in which employees at Tweeter, Etc. escorted a ‘suspicious’ teenager from the store, only to have the same teenager come back and steal a DVD player the next day.
‘He stuffed it in his coat and ran,’ Garelli said.
At Tweeter, Etc., shoplifters generally pilfer minor electronic gadgets such as AV cables and headphones, but recently, larger, more expensive items have become favorite targets. Last month thieves stole two camcorders and several DVD players valued at nearly $5,000.
‘We should run 10,000 volts through our merchandise,’ said store employee Josh Barczak. ‘That might stop them.’
At seasonal stores such as Wayland Golf and Ski Market, theft peaks at different times of the year. Jeff Baker, an assistant manager at Ski Market, said that while he occasionally finds ripped security tags in the dressing rooms, most of his store’s problems with theft arise in late fall, at the start of the skiing season.
‘You’ll get these professionals taking more than one item,’ Baker said. ‘You can tell it’s not for their own use. They probably sell our stuff on the street, somewhere.’
Baker said single-item thefts usually go unnoticed, but bigger hits are hard to miss. In the past, thieves have robbed whole racks of ski jackets and ran out the door to a waiting getaway car. During peak season, this type of theft can occur two or three times a month.
Although instances like this have happened regularly in the past, St. Hilaire described most thefts around campus as ‘crimes of opportunity’ criminal action that is spontaneous, rather than premeditated. He advised students and employees alike that the best defense against larceny is to remain vigilant.
‘People in general have a good sense of who does and who doesn’t belong, but sometimes they hesitate to call the police because they are afraid of seeming paranoid,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘Go with your gut instinct. We would rather be inundated with calls then not be called at all and have these larcenies occur.’
Chris Scott, a manager at Wayland Golf, said that while would-be crooks try to steal goods during the off-season (Winter, in his store’s case), there is rarely and incident where his staff fails to prevent theft.
‘In Winter, business is slow so it’s easy to catch shoplifters,’ Scott said. ‘We keep a lot of staff on during weekends when it’s busy, and keep all our hot items close to the counter.’
Even so, Scott said Wayland Golf’s record is not perfect. Thieves have made off with expensive golf clubs several, sometimes on more than one occasion.
Although this type of theft is frustrating and annoying, all store managers interviewed agreed that once a thief leaves, all an employee can do is call the police. It is illegal in Massachusetts to give chase to a suspected shoplifter once he has fled.
‘I’ve got no problems calling the cops,’ Garelli said. ‘They’re very responsive.’
Associate Dean of Students Herbert Ross said the proximity of such thefts are the unfortunate byproducts of being an urban campus.
‘We have an urban campus and these things do happen,’ Ross said. ‘We have an outstanding police force, and they effectively keep our campus safe.’
While several students were mildly surprised that local stores were shoplifted so frequently, none expressed overwhelming concern over petty theft.
‘It’s crazy that it happens all the time, but as far as quality of life goes, I think there’s bigger fish to fry,’ College of Arts and Sciences senior Arash Bayatmakou said. ‘I mean, maybe if the BUPD focused on actual crime instead of harassing students about IDs, something could be done, but for now it looks like small stuff like this is just part of life in the city.’