APD: Shoplifters increasingly violent

ALBUQUERQUE - Albuquerque  police say shoplifting has evolved in the last few years into a more violent and organized crime.

On Wednesday night, an Albuquerque Police Department detective was sent to the hospital after a shoplifting suspect hit her with a getaway car.

Andy Lugo is Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers fugitive of the week after police say he and his mother were caught shoplifting at Coronado Mall.

Lugo fled the scene after striking the officer with a car.

APD Commander William Roseman said that although shoplifting is more popular during the holiday shopping season, the game has changed.

"We've seen everything from hidden knives in their shirts to shoplifters arming themselves with firearms to prevent people from trying to approach them, to having lookouts who their whole job is to intercept loss prevention (officers)," Roseman told KRQE News 13.

Police say it's not just a problem in Albuquerque. Surveillance video shows a mother-daughter duo stealing from a Kohl's store in Santa Fe earlier this month.

When a store manager confronted the two outside, one woman tried to hit him with her car.

"Had she not done that, she would have only been facing a misdemeanor charge for the shoplifting because of the dollar amount they had stolen," Sgt. Andrea Dobyns with Santa Fe Police Department said. Dobyns says both women have a record.

The list goes on.

In video from May, one woman swings a baby's car seat with the baby still inside when confronted by security guards for shoplifting from a Target store. Police say the two women would resell what they stole.

"Shoplifting has evolved quite dramatically," Roseman said. "It has become quite dangerous for the loss-prevention officers who work at the different retail establishments in the city.

"What it has become is more organized, and the criminal elements are looking more to make it a commercial crime."