Police arrest 27 at Perimeter Mall as part of holiday shoplifting sting

Merchandise worth more than $8,200 was recovered, they say.

During a two-day sting this month, Dunwoody police arrested 27 people on charges of shoplifting and other offenses at Perimeter Mall, officials said.

In the middle of a busy holiday shopping period, police officers worked with loss prevention officers “to identify and apprehend shoplifters and those committing other types of crimes” at 15 of the mall’s stores on Dec. 10 and 12, the Dunwoody Police Department said.

Merchandise worth more than $8,200 was recovered, according to police. The individuals who were arrested, 25 adults and two juveniles, were not identified. They were charged with a total of 28 misdemeanors — mostly shoplifting — and two felony charges of shoplifting goods over $500, police spokesman Sgt. Robert Parsons said. One person was also charged with obstruction of officers.

“Conducting periodic operations with our private security partners is an important strategy to help combat this type of crime in Dunwoody,” Chief Billy Grogan said in a statement.

The department worked with the Georgia Retailers Organized Retail Crime Alliance on the operation, which police called an “organized retail crime blitz.”

“Organized retail crime affects 97% of retailers in Georgia, however due to ongoing collaborations such as this, we are stemming that tide,” Thomas Beusse, the executive director of the Georgia Retailers, said in a statement.

Dunwoody partnered with the group in April for another twoday shoplifting sting at Perimeter Mall, which resulted in 24 arrests and $6,279 worth of merchandise recovered.

With Perimeter Mall and a number of other popular shopping areas located in Dunwoody, the city has seen a relatively high number of retail crimes over the years.

Last year, Dunwoody police officers arrested about 650 people for shoplifting, far more than for any other crime, according to the 2018 annual report. Just over 1,800 cases of larceny were reported.