30 robberies involving the swarming of store employees reported to Edmonton police

The Edmonton Police Service is warning of a new shoplifting trend where groups of young people swarm store employees to steal expensive products.

Thirty such instances have been reported in recent months.

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Investigators say in most cases, groups of four or five people between the ages of 15 to 19 ask an employee to view perfume, cologne, or other similar items locked in glass display cases and then swarm the employee and steal a large volume of product.

In some cases, employees have been shoved in the process.

Police believe the trend is being committed by 40 to 50 different people.

"Investigators are working hard to identify and arrest the suspects responsible. To date, 16 individuals have been charged in this cluster of thefts," Acting Staff Sgt. Justin Collis with the EPS robbery section said in a news release. "Of those, seven were involved in more than one occurrence, so we have a large group of individuals committing these theft offences."

As the holiday shopping season ramps up, police believe the robberies may continue and are warning businesses to be vigilant and review their security practices.

They're offering the following tips to prevent businesses from being victimized:

• open locked cases only for individual customers, not large groups;
• ensure two employees are present when display cases are unlocked; and
• immediately lock the case after the requested product has been taken out for viewing.

Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call EPS at 780-423-4567 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.