San Francisco Target Puts Inventory on Lockdown amid Crime Spree

A San Francisco Target store has put its merchandise on lockdown as the city remains unable to curb its shoplifting crisis.

Footage of a Target’s interior appeared to show aisles of Target merchandise protected by locks. Although valuable items have been locked up in the past, inexpensive items such as mouthwash, shampoo, and lotion are now being locked to guard against shoplifters.

San Francisco Target puts entire inventory on lockdown amid shoplifting crisis https://t.co/lclJu05km7 pic.twitter.com/xG1TJNrzvz

— New York Post (@nypost) April 24, 2023

The San Francisco area has been hit by a crime wave since the coronavirus lockdowns, which has led large retailers to close their stores. Walgreens, for example, has closed five San Francisco stores.

The National Retail Federation’s 2022 retail security survey ranked San Francisco/Oakland area as the second affected crime area, losing only to the greater Los Angeles area. The retailers listed body wash and over-the-counter medications as prime targets for criminals, who often then resell the items on the black market.

According to the New York Post:

Seventy-one percent of retailers surveyed by the association said they had seen a “substantial” or “moderate” increase in organized retail crime, with 55% saying that policies that reduce or eliminate cash bail for non-violent crimes in cities like San Francisco and New York are to blame.

While San Francisco’s murder rate remains far below that of many other major cities, an increase in violent crime there was punctuated by two recent high-profile attacks – the stabbing murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee earlier this month and the unprovoked crowbar attack of Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani a day later that left the top official fighting for his life.

A Whole Foods Market store in downtown San Francisco also closed two weeks ago.

WATCH: San Francisco D.A.: We Still Have “Out of Control” Drug Dealing, “Rampant” Retail Theft, and “Repeated Violent Attacks” on Asians:

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors approved a police contract to hopefully mitigate a staffing shortage. The city police department hopes to replace roughly 562 officers that retired or resigned.