ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Two women are being sought in connection with the theft of three belts from a St. Augustine Outlets store on Wednesday evening. These are returning shoplifters and over the past few months more thieves are realizing that the St. Augustine outlets is a hotspot for the five-finger discount.
Police said the two women entered the Gucci store around 6 p.m. Wednesday and went to the women's clothing area, grabbed three belts and fled the store.
An employee said the women looked like the suspects from another theft at the store in August.
Employees didn't discover the theft until they looked at the surveillance. The three belts were valued at $600.
A popular sunglasses shop at the outlets was also the target of a hefty burglary once in January. The thieves stole more than 400 pairs of Prada, Coach and Versace sunglasses. The merchandise was worth more than $50,000.
Earlier this month thieves broke in through the roof of Rainbow Shades on State Road 312 in St. Augustine and stole $200,000 worth of sunglasses.
News4Jax's Crime and Safety Analyst Gil Smith said this kind of theft has increased around the country.
"This is basically known as organized retail theft. It's something that's been on the rise since 2008 when economy started going down," Smith said.
The manager of the Gucci store told News4Jax the thieves were girls who've hit his store before and they knew the exact times the guard was on duty. Smith said it may be helpful if they changed times of the guard's shifts.
"This is sort of a organized pattern. They know when the guard is working and I know when he's off. They need to sort of change their patterns somewhat, or schedule the guard at different times of the day and different times of the week," he said.
Smith said according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, organized retail crimes like this one occur more than auto thefts and burglaries. Stores are less likely to get hit if thieves know the store has a good surveillance camera.
"If criminals know that they have a very good sophisticated surveillance camera with high resolution, meaning that it's easy to recognize the faces from the video then thefts tend to decrease. But this place may not have had that, so they keep coming back because they know the layout of the company," Smith said.
Anyone who may have information concerning the identity of the women may call Detective Matt Thomas at the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office at 904-209-3989. Tipsters can also remain anonymous and possibly be eligible for a cash reward by calling Crime Stoppers of N.E. Florida at 888-277-8477.