Six Fair Lawn Stores Report Vast Majority of Borough Shoplifting [Interactive Map]

Nearly all of the shoplifting reported in Fair Lawn occurs at six locations — ShopRite, Pathmark, Walgreens and the three CVS pharmacies, according to police department data.

Since 2008, each of those businesses has reported an average of at least five shoplifting incidents per year. No other business in town has reported even one per year.

ShopRite has reported more than twice as many shoplifting incidents as any of the other five frequently-hit stores since 2008. Pathmark and the three CVS pharmacies all hover between eight and 10 incidents per year. Walgreens reports about five store thefts annually.

However, Interim Police Chief Glen Cauwels said the 315 total shoplifting incidents those six stores have reported since 2008 do not represent the full extent of shoplifting that occurs there.

Shoplifting is an underreported crime because stores don't always alert police of shoplifting incidents, he said. Other stores just don't spot as many shoplifters because their surveillance systems aren't as robust. 

"It’s hard to gauge too because sometimes you have people who are very good at [shoplifting] and it goes undetected," Cauwels said. "The only way we know of the existence of crime like that is when it’s reported."

He said he believes a majority of shoplifters in town don't steal things for personal use. Rather, they steal them to sell for cash.

"What is somebody going to do with 20 sticks of deodorant?" he said. "They’re selling it somewhere."

While ShopRite leads its supermarket and pharmacy competitors in the number of total shoplifting incidents, most of those reported are for minor thefts of less than $200 worth of merchandise.

Fewer than 7 percent of thefts from ShopRite since 2008 totaled more than $200 — a rate far lower than any other oft-hit store in Fair Lawn. By contrast, the CVS on Broadway reported more than twice as many thefts of more than $200 than ShopRite, even though it had less than half the total number of incidents.

Thefts of more than $200 make up more than five times the total number of thefts from the Broadway CVS and four times the total number of thefts from Pathmark — the only other supermarket on the list — than they do ShopRite.

The annual number of shoplifting events in Fair Lawn since 2008 have fluctuated greatly from year-to-year and don't fall in line with local burglary or larceny trends. A large drop in store thefts in 2011 was followed by an almost 80 percent spike last year — some of which can be attributed to the opening of a new CVS on River Road, which reported more shoplifting in its first year than any location besides ShopRite.

For a geographical view of shoplifting incidents in town, see the embedded interactive map. Use the (+) and (-) buttons to zoom in and out. Each of the six stores is designated by a marker. Clicking on each data point reveals the total number of shoplifting incidents since 2008 broken down by the amount in goods stolen and the average number of incidents per year.

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