Bill cracking down on organized retail theft clears NC Senate

RALEIGH – On Monday, the North Carolina Senate passed a law-and-order bill targeting organized retail crime.

Senate Bill 766 is a two-pronged effort that will help business owners, consumers and law enforcement. The bill passed unanimously and will now go before the North Carolina House of Representatives for consideration.

The legislation would create even more serious felonies of “organized retail theft” when the value of property stolen over a 90-day period exceeds $50,000.

And anyone who assaults a store worker or law enforcement officer while committing such theft would be subject to the most serious class of misdemeanor, the bill says.

The measure also attempts to regulate high-volume third-party sellers of merchandise at online marketplace sites. It would require such sellers to provide certain contact and identifying information to a marketplace operator, which would be obliged to suspend the seller if they refuse or provide false information.

It elevates penalties for all degrees of organized retail crime, and levies additional penalties for property damage and assaults committed during a theft. A new provision will allow business owners to retrieve property stolen during a theft more quickly.

In North Carolina, law enforcement agencies have busted crime rings and recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise, including a $400,000 bust in Cabarrus County and a $250,000 bust in Charlotte.

“Crime is on the rise in the United States. We saw it during the summer riots in 2020, and we see it today with the violent smash-and-grab incidents from California to the Carolinas. Senate Bill 766 provides law enforcement stronger recourse to pursue these criminals and shows business owners that these crime rings will not be tolerated. We cannot let our state turn into a criminal’s playground like Democrat-run states,” said Sen. Danny Earl Britt Jr., R-Robeson, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate Bill 766 also creates new transparency standards for online marketplaces that host third-party sellers, putting consumers in a better position to know who and where they are buying goods from online.

The bill is supported by the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, the North Carolina Chiefs of Police, and the North Carolina Sheriffs Association.