Bay Space House Depots Cage Instruments, Cleaning soap After Rampant Theft

Home Depot stores in the Bay Area have started locking items behind cages due to rampant theft.

Workers told The Standard that stores began locking high-value items like power tools behind cages from around January, but even laundry detergent has been locked up since then.

“It used to be high-priced items, but now even the laundry detergent is locked,” said a worker at the Emeryville Home Depot store, who spoke anonymously because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.

The items behind the lock, key, and cage vary from expensive power tools, coils of copper wire, and lawnmowers to more mundane items like phone chargers, work gloves, and shower drain covers.

CONTINUE READING: Workers say target in downtown San Francisco is hit by theft

Detergent, directly across from the store entrance, is locked at the Emeryville Home Depot. | Garrett Leahy/The Standard

Workers said the cages provided an effective deterrent for most thieves, but more savvy criminals could move near the cages, particularly to gain access to more lucrative items such as items in the power tools department.

“A month ago I saw these two guys get out of one of the cages with their bare hands,” the worker said.

“Very uncomfortable”

In the power tool aisle, which workers say is the most sought after by thieves, the Oakland Home Depot on Alameda Avenue has all the bottom shelves locked under lock and key. | Garrett Leahy/The Standard

But cages can also confuse customers trying to get hold of basic items that are now locked.

I can’t unlock the hardware because I don’t have the code, and they can’t unlock the plumbing because only I have the code,” said one worker. “It’s very uncomfortable.”

Another worker said Home Depot stores in El Cerrito, San Leandro and Oakland have cages, but some Bay Area stores don’t.

Employees at the Oakland Home Depot on Alameda Avenue said the cages were installed last December due to frequent thefts.

Phone chargers, earbuds, and backup batteries are locked away at the Home Depot in Emeryville to deter would-be thieves. | Garrett Leahy/The Standard

“It just became a nuisance,” said one worker, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Scott Glenn, vice president of asset protection at Home Depot, told ABC News in a June 1 article that organized retail theft gangs were the reason the company chose to attach cages to high-value items nationwide.

Glenn said Home Depot has been investigating more than one organized retail theft case per day nationwide for the past year, as the company has registered about 400 cases of suspected organized retail theft. According to Glenn, the thefts amount to “billions of dollars a year in losses.”

Power tools, some costing nearly $1,000, are locked up at the Emeryville Home Depot to deter thieves. | Garrett Leahy/The Standard

Home Depot instructs employees not to confront suspected shoplifters, but employs trained asset protection officers to challenge thieves. In April, a Home Depot employee was fatally shot in a Pleasanton store after confronting shoplifters.

Home Depot was not responding to requests for more information about incidents and safety procedures in the Bay Area at the time of publication.

Department of Homeland Security officials say dangerous groups like the Aryan Brotherhood, drug cartels and gangs from South America and Eastern Europe are sometimes responsible for organized retail thefts.

According to a Homeland Security Investigations report released last June, the average US family is paying more than $500 a year more for goods due to the effects of organized retail theft.