Yorba Linda, CA – After hearing from small business owners concerned with or directly impacted by rising smash-and-grab crimes and retail theft, U.S. Representative Young Kim (CA-39) introduced the Improving Federal Investigations of Organized Retail Crime Act of 2022 (H.R. 7499), a bipartisan bill to improve coordination between federal, state and local law enforcement and retailers to address retail crimes.
Smash-and-grab crimes have recently targeted small businesses in or near Rep. Kim’s district, including in Yorba Linda, Brea, Huntington Beach, Orange and West Covina. Rep. Kim visited David Hayman Jewellers in Yorba Linda last month to hear about their experience.
Read more in the Washington Examiner and find a few highlights below.
The Washington Examiner
‘Plug the dam’: Small business owners seek legislation and tech to combat retail crime
By Rachel Schilke
September 24, 2022
Small business owners in California used to leave their doors open and kept their displays full of their products. Now, many are keeping the doors locked during the day and keeping all of their valuables off the sales floor.
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Organized retail crime, including professional shoplifting, has increased dramatically since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and is regarded as the source of the decline. A recent focus of retail crime that has plagued small business owners in recent years is “smash and grab” crimes.
Last month, David Hayman Jewelers, located in Yorba Linda, California, was the victim of a smash and grab in which the store’s windows and door were smashed into and display cases were shattered, according to the owner, David Hayman. The incident caused Hayman to rethink his business operations.
Now, his display cases are made with plastic inlays, and the sample jewelry pieces are not made with precious metals. If someone were to steal them, Hayman said, they would have no value. Furthermore, he is considering buying another safe to store more of his inventory.
“As a group, we’re always trying to overcome the next attack,” he said. “When it’s all done, we can’t do business for months, sometimes … it’s very stressful for a small family business like ours.”
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Several Republicans on the House Small Business Committee have been working on the issue of small business retail crime, including Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), whose district is one of many experiencing high levels of “smash and grab” crime.
The issue is very close to home for her, maybe more so than her fellow committee members, she said, as it seems that every other week, there is another business within her district that is victimized, such as David Hayman Jewelers.
“They’re now making all these adjustments because they’re more afraid, not for themselves, opening the stores … but also worried about the safety of their employees, as well as the customers that walk into their stores,” she said.
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Read the full article here.
