Stollsteimer calls out Philly looters: Not in Delco
‘Don’t think you can come here and steal with impunity’
District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Wednesday that looting like that seen in Philadelphia on Tuesday night will not be tolerated in Delaware County.
“There are going to be consequences when you steal here in Delaware County,” he said. “What those consequences are, eventually, is going to be determined by the court through the legal process, but don’t think you can come here and steal with impunity.”
The thefts and unrest stretched from downtown to Northeast and West Philadelphia Tuesday, leaving smashed display windows and broken storefront coverings as groups of teenagers swarmed into stores, stuffing plastic bags with merchandise and fleeing, authorities said. Police arrested 15 to 20 people.
The flash mob-style ransacking came after a peaceful protest over a judge’s decision to dismiss murder and other charges against a Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a driver through a rolled-up window.
“I think people took advantage of this excuse to go out and loot,” said Stollsteimer, a Democrat who faces Republican District Attorney candidate Beth Stefanide-Miscichowski in the November General Election.
Stollsteimer had, oddly enough, toured the Wegmans store in Glen Mills earlier in the day as part of a National Store Walk initiative organized by the National District Attorneys Association and Retail Leaders Association to promote collaboration between retailers and prosecutors in fighting organized retail theft.
“We wanted to send a clear message yesterday that we don’t allow this to happen in Delaware County,” Stollsteimer said. “You will be prosecuted in Delaware County if you steal from any of our retailers. If it’s a small, low-level offense, you can get into a diversionary program. If it’s somebody who’s stealing to put food on the table, we want to help them access human services. We also want to make sure that they pay a price for the crime that they committed. But these organized criminal retail theft rings, whether it’s a large group or small group, we want law enforcement to be prepared to go after them.”
Stollsteimer said there is a growing concern about such organized groups nationwide. Some are more dramatic, with large numbers of hooded thieves rushing into an establishment all at once and stealing everything they can before fleeing.
That kind of flash mob has not popped up in Delaware County, Stollsteimer said, but he is hearing about a more pervasive problem of small groups of people who consistently steal on a regular basis, slowly bleeding a store of its inventory in a constant stream rather than in one big flood of action.
Favorite targets are things like personal care items, baby formula and detergent that can quickly and easily be turned around on the black market. And some are willing to defend their ill-gotten goods if confronted.
“(Retailers) told me stories about people coming into the store and stealing stuff, and as (employees) approached them, they pulled up their shirt to show a weapon, a firearm,” he said. “A lot of what we were doing yesterday was to call attention to the problem of retail theft that’s really hurting the economy and hopefully not driving these retailers — who are struggling to survive the 21st century — out of business.”
While some neighboring jurisdictions might merely cite a perpetrator under a certain dollar amount and treat it as a summary offense, Stollsteimer said that is not the case in Delaware County.
“You do not have a right to steal from our retailers in Delaware County,” he said. “You are going to be caught, you are going to fingerprinted, you are going to be arrested. We are going to treat you like a criminal. Until such time as there’s a disposition in your case, you are going to be treated that way.”