(KUSA) -- Stealing has grown up. Today there are roving gangs of organized shoplifters, taking a big bite out of the bottom line of a lot of retailers in Colorado. That's ending up costing all of us more than you might think.
9NEWS Business Reporter Gregg Moss obtained video of alleged shoplifters, also known as "boosters," who make off with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise in just a matter of minutes.
It's now known as Organized Retail Crime, and it's responsible for over a half-billion dollars in lost goods every year.
A lot of the people who steal are doing it to feed a habit that's hard to shake, while others may use this as a springboard to even more serious crimes. A woman, who we'll refer to as "Brenda," told 9NEWS she shoplifts, or boosts, every day to support her heroin addiction.
"I'm usually done in three minutes," Brenda said. "I usually get $300 worth. I have a big purse. I just fill it up and walk out the door."
Expensive hair care products are Brenda's target of choice.
"I take a whole bunch of it and I go sell it to beauty salons or jewelry stores for cash," Brenda said.
Brenda told 9NEWS she will resell hair care products to local beauty supply stores for $5. Some of these stores actually place orders with her, telling her what and how much they want.
John Lites, the Loss Prevention Director for Safeway, said some products are targeted during Organized Retail Crime more frequently than others.
"Most stolen items would be DVDs, razor blades, some hair care products, some cold products like Prilosec and Allegra, and baby formula," Lites said. "It's all pre-planned. They'll come in three to seven stores a day, not just Safeway, but other retailers and they'll hit these stores and that will be their haul for the day. Multiple thousands of dollars in one day."
Surveillance video from Texas, taken a few years ago, shows a man boosting medicine in his pants. Store managers say the man and his fellow shoplifters got away with $1,200 worth of medicine in just three minutes.
"I think most people look at shoplifting as a very petty offense that maybe doesn't demand 2 police officers showing up in a cruiser," Chris Homes, with the Colorado Retail Council, said. "However, we're losing $15 million in sales tax revenue a year. That's about the salary of 300 police officers in the state."
Another big concern is the fact that this is a gateway crime, which can lead to something more serious, such as an auto theft or armed robbery.
"Boosters for the most part have a drug problem," Lites said. "They're involved in personal use of drugs and they need to steal these items to sell them and maintain their drug habit."
It's a cycle Brenda knows all too well.
"The reason I've chosen to do this interview is that I'm ready to change," Brenda told 9NEWS. "I was clean for 3 years and I should've never started again. So I'm ready to get out of this lifestyle. It's not very good. I've lost everything that I have in my life and I just had a daughter and I'm going to lose her if I don't stop. So it's time to change."
Big retailers say it's time to change the law. Representative Mark Barker from Colorado Springs is going to sponsor a bill that will crack down on Organized Retail Crime and give law enforcement more options.
"Instead of taking each offense one at a time and dealing with them separately it allows them to aggregate the offenses over the state and perhaps even over multiple states and charge them under the organized crime act," Rep. Barker said.
Brenda says it would have deterred her, but for now it's the daughter she gets to see only two days a week that is motivating her to stop.
"I've given up everything and blown off things," Brenda said. "It's changed me a lot. I miss the old me. But I know she'll never be back. But I'm ready to try and change and find some of the old me."
Representative Barker will introduce his bill at the state house next week.
It will also crack down on the stores that knowingly buy stolen goods and resell them. It will also have a provision to do more education of law enforcement about why organized shoplifting is a crime worth fighting.