Smash, Grab, Then Make a Killing Online

But the thieves got bolder. They began showing up in groups of five or six in the middle of the day, spraying store clerks with mace and knocking customers out of the way as they gathered armfuls of clothes. Sometimes they tossed a brick through the glass. Sometimes they drove a truck through the front door.

The thieves aren't looking for just any kind of jeans. They're snatching high-end designer duds that sell for US$150 to $350. The "bluejean bandits" have hit more than two dozen stores in the Atlanta area since January, stealing more than $1 million in goods and selling them everywhere from online auctions to high school parking lots.

Organized Robbery Rings

Smash-and-grabs have long been popular among thieves. But in the past five years, authorities said, there has been a proliferation of retail robberies involving rings of thieves who have gotten more aggressive, more specific in what they are looking for and better organized in carrying out the crimes.

According to the FBI, these robbery rings have increasingly turned to the Internet to fence their goods, making it tougher to catch them.

"They've moved from flea markets to the Internet," said Richard Hollinger, a criminology professor at the University of Florida who compiles the National Retail Security Survey. "They sell a lot of merchandise on the Internet with the price tag still on them. Some might say, 'If I got a pair of jeans that didn't fit for a gift, I might sell them on eBay.' But who would have 50 pairs in different sizes?"

Craig Sherman, spokesperson for the National Retail Federation, said selling online can boost the thieves' profits.

"When a thief sells something on a traditional street corner or pawnshop, he might get 30 cents on the dollar," Sherman said. "But if he sells it online, he gets as much as 70 percent on the value."

In a survey this year by the federation, 85 percent of retailers said they had been the victim of organized robbery rings, a 7 percent increase in three years. Retailers estimate that they lose more than $30 billion a year to organized retail crime. In Illinois, retailers said they lose $1.3 billion a year, costing the state $82.3 million in lost sales tax revenue.

Trouble in Chicago Area

Chicago Walgreens stores had about a dozen armed robberies by a small gang of thieves last year. The robbers grabbed thousands of dollars' worth of diabetic blood-test strips from behind the counter and fled within minutes. In May, two women robbed the AAA Sportswear store in Maywood, Ill., and escaped by breaking a glass door with a baseball bat and a golf club. Similar crimes have been reported across the country.

At the urging of retailers, Reps. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) introduced legislation last week that would make organized retail crime a federal offense. The bill targets high-volume online vendors who sell at least $12,000 in merchandise a year and would hold online marketplaces such as eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) , Overstock.com and Craigslist subject to fines and prosecution if they fail to identify unlawful sellers.

Once items are stolen, according to retailers, they often go through a "cleaning" level where they are repackaged and repriced before they are sold illegally. In addition to high-end clothing, retailers said popular stolen items that end up online include smoking cessation kits, razors, electronics, CDs and DVDs, and items that could pose a health risk, such as infant formula and over-the-counter medicines, if they are not stored properly.

It's not just retailers being hit. With the housing market slump and foreclosures on the rise, homes are sitting vacant, becoming formidable targets for thieves, who haul off everything -- including items that are nailed down.

The industry loses $5 billion a year in thefts, said Gopal Ahluwalia, vice president for research at the National Association of Home Builders, raising the cost of a new home by 1.5 percent.

eBay Opposes Legislation

Ellsworth said his legislation would require online sites to get identification from vendors and to make that information available to law enforcement.

"If the thieves can get past the store, then they can fence these goods with anonymity," Ellsworth said. "Basically, it gets rid of any witnesses."

eBay said it has 2,000 full-time employees who look for fraudulent and unlawful sales among the 7 million new items listed on the site every day.

"Selling stolen property is illegal and is not permitted or welcome on eBay," said spokesperson Catherine England. "We're not just kicking people off eBay if we see this going on; we're doing everything we can to see that they are prosecuted."

eBay opposes the legislation, England said, because it singles out online marketplaces without placing any obligation on retailers to police their inventories. Research shows that employee theft accounts for a large portion of retail losses, she said.

"This legislation in our opinion is not about consumer protection, it is about competition prevention. Retailers are trying to control distribution and undermine secondary markets like eBay," she said.

Stop Blue Jean Bandits

In Atlanta, large billboards have gone up saying "Stop the Blue Jean Bandits" and offering rewards of up to $2,000 for anonymous tips. Police have made 13 arrests, but they said at least three core groups are operating with 30-plus members.

"There is some organization to this madness," said Atlanta Police Sgt. Archie Ezell, head of the retail task force. "There's an older individual who orchestrates the thefts, and he's always recruiting teens and people in their early 20s to perpetrate the crimes."

The thieves mostly target high-end boutiques that carry designer labels such as True Religion and Rock & Republic, brands made popular by hip-hop artists. Ezell said artists often borrow jeans or hoodies from the stores to wear in their videos and then return them, raising their value up to $2,000.

"The market is the young people," Ezell said. "But the stuff costs so much; that's why it's stolen."

A $320 pair of True Religion jeans can be bought online for about $100.

After being hit by the bandits three times this year and losing $60,000 in merchandise, Mitzi Prochnow, who owns three boutiques in a trendy Atlanta neighborhood, is thinking about closing one store and fortifying the others with drop-down metal doors.

"It's really the perfect crime," Prochnow said. "Six strong young men break in the door and run in and grab as much as they can. I have a security camera system, but they are in and out in a minute and a half, and everything they take is pure profit for them."