Photo: Dorrien Blake
March 20, 2021 – Ventura County, Ca
Even though they employ teams of loss prevention professionals at their brick-and-mortar locations, major retailers must still factor a certain percentage of annual losses due to “breakage” in their profit-and-loss statements.
Jada Gayles
But even the most profitable high-volume retail operation has limited tolerance for pilferage by professional teams of shoplifters.
That reality came to light at the Moorpark, Ca. Target store on the afternoon of March 16th . According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. William Hutton, it was at approximately 2:30 p.m. when the stores loss prevention personnel alerted VCSD with “suspect descriptions of two males” who had allegedly walked out of the store with a quantity of stolen over-the-counter medications.
Joshua Johnson
Responding to the call and working with a description of the vehicle in which the perpetrators had fled prior to their arrival on the scene, deputies soon “spotted the suspect vehicle on eastbound Los Angeles Avenue” and conducted a forcible traffic stop. Inside the car were three Los Angeles residents: Dorrien Blake, 20, Joshua Johnson, 21, and Jada Gayles, 20.
The three suspects were detained while deputies searched their vehicle and discovered “two large trash bags filled with over the counter medication and various make-up and hygiene items.” The total value of the bags’ contents were estimated to be in excess of $4,800. Along with the booty, deputies found approximately $1900 in cash.
Blake and Johnson are “responsible for previous organized retail theft crimes” throughout southern Ventura County, with connection to “48 incidents of theft at 36 different Target store locations,” with reported losses “at over $50,000.”
All three suspects were transported to Ventura County Jail, where Blake and Gayles were booked on charges of organized retail theft and possession of stolen property, with their bail set at $50,000 each. Johnson was booked on a charge of second-degree commercial burglary, with his bail set at $20,000.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
