Cops face an uphill battle in Vermont’s shoplifting capital

WILLISTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Williston has two distinct personalities. A quaint New England village, and a mile away, a fast-growing retail powerhouse.

“Well, it’s busy, as you can tell. You know, the commercial aspect of the town is growing immensely day by day,” said Williston Police Lt. Joshua Moore, one of 17 officers in the town of 11,000. And with growth, comes crime. “Every single day we’re responding to just retail thefts.”

Known for its box stores, shoplifting has become a major problem for the police. “Retail thefts — 47% just over last year,” Moore said.

“Never know what you’re going to get,” said Williston Ofc. Avery Lemnah, sho has been on the force for three years and spends much of her shift cruising for criminals. “Sometimes we’ll set outside the stores, sometimes we’ll just circle around.”

Within an hour of her shift, the first call comes in. “Bed, Bath & Beyond just called. They have a female in the store who has previous stolen,” says the dispatcher over the radio. “They just want her to move along, so that’s what we’ll do,” Lemnah said.

Police say the woman stole blankets from the store just a week before. Lemnah pulls up and confronts her outside the store. “Nope, you’re going to stay here until I’m done with you,” she tells the woman.

She ends up giving the alleged shoplifter a no-trespassing notice. “They have to sign it. But once they do, it’s a notice to trespass, it doesn’t expire. If you are back here, you can get cited for unlawful trespass.” Lemnah says the 52-year-old woman put the merchandise back on the counter before police arrived this time. “She didn’t commit a crime today — she was just trespassing today. Cited for the retail theft last week.”

“Sometimes it’s repeat offenders within the same day. They go from one store to the next store to the next store and a lot of it is fuel from drug addiction,” Lt. Moore said. He says many of the addicts are homeless and they steal merchandise for easy cash, selling the stuff to feed their addiction.

Reporter Joe Carroll: Where do these stolen goods go?

Lt. Joshua Moore: All over the place. We’re told that some of these folks are real honest with us. They say it’s real easy to move — like a North Face jacket — on the streets of Burlington.

Back on the streets of Williston, Ofc. Lemnah sees the same shoplifting over and over.

Reporter Joe Carroll: Do you get frustrated?

Ofc. Avery Lemnah: I do. There’s a lot of them where I have in my head, oh they’ll probably be lodged for ‘X’ amount and it’s, ‘We’re not going to lodge them. It’s not up to me, it’s not my job,’ and… you know.

But it is the job of judges and elected officials like Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George. “People are struggling right now. Our population of people without homes is significantly worse than it has been in the past. People with substance use disorders are significantly worse than we’ve seen in the past. All of those things are major contributors to retail theft,” George said.

She is not surprised by the rapid increase of shoplifting in Williston but stresses it’s not just in Chittenden County.

Erin Sigrist, president of the Vermont Retail and Grocers Association, agrees. “We have been hearing from our members around the state, more and more this year.,” she said, but believes officials could do more. “We need state’s attorneys to be prosecuting these issues. Simply slapping them on the wrist and sending them back out or not prosecuting whatsoever, isn’t helping the situation.”

“I mean, we’re prosecuting the cases, so I’m not sure how we respond to that. We have over 500 pending. When we get them from law enforcement, we prosecute them,” George said, adding that locking them up isn’t the fix.

Reporter Joe Carroll: So what can be done, what do you think?

Sarah George: People’s basic needs need to be met. We need to be investing significantly more time and energy into people’s basic needs. People need to be housed and they need substance use treatment on demand. Right now, the drug supply is poisoned beyond anything we’ve ever seen.

Back on the front line, it’s still early in Ofc. Lemnah shift. “At the end of the day, they’re making their own adult decision to walk out of the store without paying for items, so it’s not up to me to be their conscience,” she said.

Punishment or treatment, there seems to be no easy answer to a crime wave that rolls on.

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