4 CVS shoplifters seen ‘picking the place dry’ as crime continues to spiral out of control in San Francisco

Viral video captured the moment four shoplifting suspects fled from a San Francisco CVS with bags laden down with purportedly ill-gotten goods.

What are the details?

KTVU-TV’s Henry K. Lee tweeted a video of the female suspects fleeing the scene on Tuesday, captioning it, “These 4 women ran off after going into @cvspharmacy at Van Ness & Jackson in SF and ‘picking the place dry,’ witness says[.]”

“@cvspharmacy at Van Ness & Jackson in SF, witness @SteveAdams80182 says he asked staffers if they were going to call @SFPD ‘but they just shrugged,'” he added.

What else?

Witnesses said that they weren’t surprised at the brazen shoplifting due to the seemingly unending torrent of retail thefts taking place across the city.

“This sort of thing is becoming so normal,” one witness told Lee, according to Fox News.

variety of similar incidents have taken place across the city and state over the last several months, including thefts from drug stores, clothing retailers, and more.

The outlet reported that shoplifters aren’t making off with “one or two items that someone might need to get by,” San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Robert Rueca said.

Investigations, instead, are reportedly finding that shoplifters are reportedly reselling the stolen goods to make money.

“Our investigations have shown that there are organized fences where people are selling these products that they steal,” he explained.

Fox News added, “Millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise has been stolen from retailers in San Francisco, California Retail Association President Rachel Michelin told Fox News, adding that the funds from stolen items are ultimately used by crime syndicates.”

In a May report, the New York Times detailed the disturbing surge in shoplifters across San Francisco.

The report stated, “The mundane crime of shoplifting has spun out of control in San Francisco, forcing some chain stores to close. Walgreens said that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable.”

In June, a brazen suspect made off with a trash bag stuffed with Walgreens merchandise.

Many of San Francisco’s Target locations have even begun closing early to stem the tide of out-of-control shoplifting incidents, and Walgreens has closed doors on 17 of its San Francisco-area stores over the past five years due to shoplifting, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill to confront California’s ongoing crime wave, re-establishing organized retail theft as a crime, Fox News reported.

*story by The Blaze