Suspect in multiple shoplifts charged
The man believed to be the suspect in a viral shoplifting video filmed at a San Francisco Walgreens will face 15 charges related to a string of shoplifting cases over the past several weeks, prosecutors said
Wednesday.
San Francisco police on Saturday arrested Jean Lugo Romero, 40, in connection to the June 14 burglary in a Hayes Valley Walgreens, as well as seven other recent incidents at various Walgreens and CVS stores in the city. The charges, which include grand theft, seconddegree burglary and shoplifting, stem from incidents between May 11 and June 19.
“Local businesses and neighborhood stores are the backbone of our community, and we are working to protect San Francisco stores and consumers,” San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in a statement. “In addition to our prosecutions, our office is engaged in numerous strategic partnerships, dismantling the criminal networks that make these crimes profitable.”
Lugo Romero was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon and has entered a plea of not guilty, according to Deputy Public Defender Semuteh Freeman.
The charges come amid renewed furor over property crimes in San Francisco, where retailers have blamed losses from rampant shoplifting for shuttering many of their stores. Walgreens has closed 17 locations in San Francisco over the past five years, an “unpopular and difficult decision” that regional vice president Jason Cunningham attributed to uncontrollable theft.
It’s not clear, however, how many of these locations would have closed anyway. In 2019, the pharmacy chain reported
“Our office is ... dismantling the criminal networks that make these crimes profitable.”
Chesa Boudin, San Francisco district attorney
that it would close 200 stores nationwide in a costcutting measure, with media reports at the time citing increased online sales and slower foot traffic as reason for the move.
The viral video, shot by ABC7 reporter Lyanne Melendez and posted on her Twitter account, shows a masked man stuffing products from a Gough Street Walgreens into a trash bag before cruising out of the store on a bicycle without paying. A security guard who was also filming the incident made a brief, but unsuccessful attempt to snatch the trash bag from the suspect as he fled.
Throughout the eight alleged incidents, Lugo Romero is accused of collectively stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise, with some individual hauls estimated at upward of $600, according to a San Francisco police report obtained by The Chronicle. In the most recent incident, an attempted grand theft on June 19 at a Haight Street CVS, Lugo Romero is accused of trying to make off with 102 items totaling $977, the report states.
Police had previously identified Lugo Romero months earlier after he was detained in an alleged retail theft at the 300 Gough St. Walgreens — the same location where the viral video was shot this month. Lugo Romero was photographed during that stop, but “was released because the store did not want to press charges at that time,” the police report states.
A spokesperson for
Walgreens did not immediately return a request for comment on why the store declined to press charges following that incident.
Freeman, representing Lugo Romero, said the public defender’s office will conduct its own investigation into the case.
“Mr. Lugo Romero is a longtime Bay Area resident with supportive family members, but he is someone who could benefit from housing assistance and case management services, not prolonged incarceration,” Freeman said in a statement. “As with all cases, we expect to learn more about the circumstances than what has been made public thus far, and so we ask the public to reserve judgment of our client as his case proceeds.”