Tukwila Police Officers assigned to the Southcenter District recently encountered a group of suspected Organized Retail Theft (ORT) members haphazardly loading up shopping carts with random merchandise at a department store.

Police say that the suspects were not accustomed to the level of customer service that Tukwila officers provide for those carting around high-dollar amounts of merchandise. The officers made sure that the suspects safely made it to the register with the merchandise to check-out. At the register, the suspects were suddenly overcome with a case of potential buyer’s remorse and decided to leave the merchandise behind and left the store.

Here’s more from police:

Knowing that ORT members are never ones to pass up a “Free” sale on thousands of dollars of merchandise, the officers relocated to a nearby department store to see if they could relocate the suspects. Unsurprisingly, the group was located inside of the store in the process of rapidly removing hangars from high-dollar amount items of clothing and outwear. Audible groans could be heard from the group as they spotted our customer service superstars approaching to assist them once again with safely making their way to the registers to purchase the items that they were carelessly tossing around and attempting to conceal.

As expected, the group decided that they were no longer interested in the thousands of dollars of merchandise that they had so meticulously removed hangars and some tags from. They made the wise choice to leave for good from there.

These patrols have made a significant dent in crime of multiple varieties in the retail core of the city over the past several months and have resulted in numerous significant arrests, recovered narcotics and firearms, trespass warnings issued and thousands of dollars in recovered merchandise. The patrols are in addition to our regular patrol staffing and typically free up our normally staffed patrol officers to focus their attention on proactively patrolling their districts and assisting officers in other spots.

As always, if it doesn’t belong to you, don’t touch it. While we have been told by numerous extremely offended suspects over the past few months that we need to find better things to do because “X, Y or Z” city doesn’t respond, doesn’t care and or lets them do it, this is not one of those cities and that is their bar that they have set, not ours. We are still doing police work within the scope of the law, we are still responding to crimes, we are still making arrests and we are still filing cases against those that come here with the intent of committing crimes. For those willing to accept assistance and resources to get back on track, we are always willing to assist with providing those resources.

📞 9-1-1 for emergencies

📞 (206) 241-2121 for non-emergencies

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