LIBERTY, Mo. — The Liberty Police Department is driving home a message after seeing an uptick in shoplifting leading up to the holiday season.
“If you’re coming to Liberty with the intent to steal, then they should plan on going to jail afterwards,” said Lt. Nathan Mulch, with the Liberty Police Department. “In the shopping district alone we’ve responded over 80 times this year to stealing, shoplifting, things like that — resulting in one shopping center losing over $80,000."
Mulch says the increased thefts has forced the department to step up patrol.
“We’re bringing in additional officers on overtime, pulling them from specialized units, to come out and proactively patrol these shopping districts," Mulch said. "To either deter shoplifting from occurring, or to catch those in the act of stealing."
Lisa Nicewaner, co-owner of Back in Time Comics and Toys, says that shoplifting could play with the income of small businesses.
“Utilities, insurance, we have a billboard, so all of those expenses are determined on our income that we bring in,” Nicewaner said. “We are retired teachers, so our sole income is from the store. So when you steal something, it's literally taking it from us.”
Nicewaner says she's locked and stocked with merchandise and security measures in place to protect her store.
“We make sure our counters are positioned by the front doors, it's one of the first things we thought about when we opened up our business," she said. "We have locked cases, we have security alarms that we can monitor on the phone."
Nicewaner says she hopes holiday season shoplifters think twice about doing it.
“I understand inflation, everything is really tough right now, but there are other ways you can make money in an honest way,” she said.
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