Thieves have been cleaning up stealing laundry detergent from stores in Prince George’s County, Md., but special investigators are making progress.
A special crime squad has made five arrests and is looking for 15 other suspects.
“Boosters” will load shopping carts with laundry detergent and then race out of the store to their cars to make a getaway. One Safeway store was losing about $15,000 per month in Tide alone.
Surveillance video showed a man stealing Tide from a Wegman’s, police said. Forty minutes later, with police watching, that man’s accomplice sold the Tide at a nail salon. Police seized 18 jugs seized, 27 packages of Gillette Fusion razors, 11 bottles of body wash and two Apple computers
A special crime squad also raided the Universal Supermarket in Silver Spring this week, seizing 129 jugs of Tide and 72 cans of baby formula.
“So he paid five bucks for this, and he’s selling it for almost $25,” Prince George’s County police Lt. Brad Pyle said. “That’s almost a 500 percent profit. Yeah, liquid gold.”
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