Las Vegas business owners speak of toll of retail theft

Sou Ngo still remembers the feeling when his flagship boba tea shop in southwest Las Vegas was broken into in 2019, and the many headaches that followed.

Burglars had broke into Ngo’s Brew Tea Bar at 7380 S. Rainbow Boulevard, near Warm Springs Road, after smashing through the front entryway after business hours, Ngo recalled.

“It’s one of the worst feelings that any small business owner can have,” said Ngo, who spoke outside his of store at a press conference Thursday.

Organized by the Retail Association of Southern Nevada and the Asian American and Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce of Southern Nevada, the press conference was timed to raise awareness of Friday’s Fight Retail Crime Day and October being National Crime Prevention Month.

Amid a rise in shoplifting over the same time last year, according to Metropolitan Police Department statistics, business owners and business advocates also called for stiffer penalties for retail thieves.

“Retail crime is a huge issue,” said Bryan Wachter, president of the association. He added that business owners were hoping to highlight the impact organized retail crime can have on local businesses. “It has the exact same effect on every single one of our retailers.”

‘Alarming increase’

Catherine Francisco, president and founder of the AAPI chamber, said at Thursday’s event that members have shared an “alarming increase” in retail crime as of late.

“These crimes are not just losses, they’re devastating,” Francisco said. “If this continues, the economic ripple effects will be very significant. When businesses shut down, we lose local jobs, tax revenue and the community character that makes Southern Nevada special.”

As well, retail thefts can cause a business to raise prices in order to offset the added overhead associated with reordering inventory or paying for bolstered security, Wachter said. He added that crimes against businesses can also lead to a decrease in sales tax revenue, which in turn can impact funding for state-level programs that support transportation and schooling.

In Ngo’s experience, the thieves were in and out within five minutes and only made off with an empty safe, he said. But he and his business associates were left with no other choice but to temporarily close in order to rebuild the storefront.

“We were left with all these damages that we had to fix,” Ngo said.

To date, the thieves have never been found, he said.

Jump in shoplifting

From Jan. 1 through Oct. 19, the Metropolitan Police Department has received 5,941 reports of shoplifting, considered a form of larceny, which represents an increase of about 12 percent from the same time last year, according to a weekly crime report published by the department.

Metro’s report also noted a 12.6 percent reduction in overall property crimes, including an 8.9 percent decrease in larcenies. Reports of burglaries and robberies were down 14.5 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively, according to the report. A department spokesperson said Thursday that Metro’s statistics do not differentiate whether the property crime is reported by a business or a resident.

Charles Kim, owner of the Korean-Nashville fried chicken restaurant Hencredible, located next door to Ngo’s flagship boba shop, began operations in April and said Thursday his store was nearly broken into recently, though his security system appears to have scared off someone attempting to make entry through the back door.

“Things like this cost us money,” Kim said.

Wachter said the retail association is strongly urging Gov. Joe Lombardo and state lawmakers to prioritize a crime bill that would impose additional penalties for destruction of property linked to retail thefts should Lombardo call a special session. Lombardo said earlier this month he intends to call a special session to address what he called “unfinished” business left by the Legislature, but did not specify what his legislative agenda would be.

‘Doing nothing is not an option’

Assemblymember Duy Nguyen, D-Las Vegas, said at Thursday’s press conference that he was unsure when Lombardo may call for a special session, but that he’d support a measure to impose added penalties against criminals who intentionally cause property damage to retail establishments during a theft. Nguyen voted in favor of similar legislation, Senate Bill 457 from this year’s legislative session, though the bill died in the state Senate.

“I don’t know what that timeline looks like,” Nguyen said. “But we want to make sure that when and if that happens, that this particular component is part of the conversation, because we don’t get together very often.”

Francisco said she encourages all small business owners who fall victim to theft to report any instance to law enforcement. Police may not always be able to catch the culprit, like in Ngo’s case, but reporting it at least gives authorities a sense of what’s happening in the community, and can help illustrate greater crime trends for an area, she said.

“We know this isn’t an easy problem to solve, but we also know that doing nothing is not an option,” Francisco said.

Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @casey-harrison.bsky.social on Bluesky.