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Retailers push organized retail crime bill to include gift‑card fraud and online resale; lawmakers seek data and prosecutorial coordination
Summary
Retail trade groups urged the committee to pass Senate Bill 13‑21 to modernize Connecticut's statutes on organized retail crime, add gift‑card fraud to the definition and give prosecutors better tools to pursue coordinated theft rings and resale networks.
Representatives of the Connecticut Retail Network and the Connecticut Food Association told the Public Safety and Security Committee that organized retail crime (ORC) has become more sophisticated and that state law should be updated to include practices such as gift‑card tampering, online resale and trafficking of stolen goods.
Tim Phelan, president of the Connecticut Retail Network, said ORC has escalated in scale and violence and now often crosses jurisdictions and online marketplaces. "Organized retail crime is defined as a large scale theft of retail merchandise with the intent to…
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