Dirtbags Pull Off Brazen Detergent Heist At Connecticut Grocery Store

Multiple people were caught on camera Tuesday morning stealing multiple jugs of laundry detergent and other items from a Connecticut grocery store as customers looked on and recorded while in disbelief. The brazen thievery took place at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday at Market 32 in the town of Oxford, approximately 15 miles northwest of New Haven.

According to WFSB-3, police say they were called 10 minutes after the dirtbags started filling up carts inside the store and walking right out the front door without paying for the goods. Police say the vehicles that were loaded up are most likely stolen.

“Had 911 been contacted in a timely manner, police personnel would have been able to attempt to intercept those involved. We would like to remind everyone to stay vigilant and not to engage with people like this when a crime is occurring," the Connecticut State Police said in a statement released to the press.

As for why detergent was targeted in this early-morning theft, experts say detergent is "liquid gold" on the black market that is run by a fence, or a person who's a buyer of stolen goods. The booster, the boots on the ground stealing the items, supplies the fence and the fence will sell up the fence chain where items are repackaged and sold again.

Here's the chain of command, according to a 2019 report from Loss Prevention Media:

• Level 1 booster: low-level thieves, work alone, stays in a local market, doesn't venture out

• Level 2 booster: regional thieves, handle more territory, takes on a partner or group

• Level 3 booster: "a team of coordinated criminals who operate nationally and may sell their product directly to diverters."

• Level 1 fence: sells directly to consumers. You might see them at flea markets

• Level 2 fence: likes to repackage goods and sell them to level 3 fence

• Level 3 fence: sells goods in so much volume that they deal as legitimate wholesalers; so big they sometimes don't know stuff has been stolen

Long-time reader El KaBong walks us through how some of this stuff works:

And there you have it. The next time you see people in a big hurry to load up shopping carts loaded with Tide and Gain, it's not because they're hoarders and there's about to be a shortage of detergent. They're thieves. Plain and simple.