Tide detergent 'liquid gold' for thieves

Security cameras recently captured a man stealing 14 jugs of Tide laundry detergent at an Oro Valley store.

The man walked out of a Safeway on Rancho Vistoso Boulevard without paying for seven bottles of Tide detergent Sept. 17. A month later, security cameras recorded the same man and an accomplice steal another seven jugs of Tide from the same store.

All told, the suspect made off with several hundred dollars worth of Tide.

The theft caught the eye of Oro Valley police, who have seen laundry detergent stolen from stores in the past, but usually one or two bottles at a time, said department spokeswoman Sgt. Carmen Trevizo.

The detergent could be used to clean the man’s clothes, but detectives also have seen it used as a street currency, Trevizo said.

The National Retail Federation listed laundry detergent as one of the top items stolen by organized retail gangs in 2014.

“They call it ‘liquid gold,’ ” Chris McGourty, a 27-year veteran of retail security and executive director of the Norwood, Massachusetts-based National Anti-Organized Retail Crime Association, said of Tide.

Tide holds its value well and thieves have figured out they can sell it on the black market, he said.

“On the regular market, it’s a pricey item. But it’s a brand name and people want it,” he said, adding baby food and formula also are frequently stolen items.

For example, a 170-ounce bottle of Tide was selling for $32 on Amazon.

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Boosters, as thieves who sell stolen items on the black market are known, take Tide from stores and sell it to small shops at a sharp discount, McGourty said.

The black market sale allows the smaller shops to clear a larger profit while giving boosters money for drugs or simply to survive, he said.

Boosters also trade Tide directly to drug dealers, who then re-sell the detergent, he said.

In other cases, the stolen Tide is sold online, he said.

Tucson police have seen Tide stolen, including two one-gallon bottles stolen in January and three separate incidents in 2014 in which a total of 10 bottles were stolen, said department spokesman Officer Kristopher Goins.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has seen cases where laundry detergent was stolen, but not on the scale of other items, such as beer, said department spokesman Deputy Tracy Suitt.

The department does not keep readily available statistics on detergent theft, but “it is happening,” Suitt said.

Deputies have not caught any detergent thieves yet, so they have not been able to interview them and ask why they steal it, Suitt said.

To combat the theft of Tide, some stores put security tags or stickers on the bottles, McGourty said. But boosters rip off the tags or dip them in water to destroy them.

“If it’s not nailed down, it’s fair game,” he said.